Gordy Nagel Gordy Nagel

PLEASE NOTE:    We are so thankful for those of you who have reached out to visit him, but at this time he is unable to accept visitors except immediate family.   Thank you. 


Welcome to our CaringBridge website for Gordon John Nagel (64).  Gordy has been married to Sharon for 42 years and they have two daughters Kelley and Jamie.  He and Sharon have five grandchildren, Taylor (16), Peyton (14), Alaina (11), Liv (9) and Leighton (7).  Gordy retired after 26 years as an Aerospace Engineer for Honeywell on January 1, 2016.  Gordy has been a type one diabetic I since he was 6 years old and since then has taken insulin injections 3 times a day.  He has experienced more than his share of surgeries in his life and health scares.   We often joke that he has MORE lives than a cat!  In May of 2016 he had a heart attack and was told that he had 100% blockage on one side of the heart and 70% blockage on the other side.  The doctors tried to put a stint in but were unsuccessful.  During May- October 2016 the doctors and specialist worked on what could be done  since his diabetes had rendered most of the veins in his body useless for harvest.     A decision was made to harvest two chest veins, transplant them and tie them into the heart.   The surgery took place on October 11, 2016 .   The surgery was difficult and the risk for infection was high but there were no other options.   While recovering in the hospital he went into kidney failure and had to go on to dialysis.  He is still on dialysis every other day for 4 hours.   On October 31, 2016 he went to the hospital because his incision was not looking as healthy as it had been.  The doctor immediately admitted him and opened his chest back up to find that he had an infection, the same infection the doctor had been worried about.   On Tuesday November 1 he went in for what we were told would a quick surgery to open him and try to clean the infection.  We were informed that evening that the infection had spread to the bone and they would be keeping him in a medically induced coma until they could clear the infection.  The reason for this was they needed to keep his chest cavity open and any voluntary or involuntary movement could damage the heart.  This is what brought us to the Caring Bridge website and here begins his story.