Joseph Kenney

Welcome to Joe's CaringBridge website. We are using it to keep family and friends updated in one place. We appreciate your support and words of hope and encouragement. Thank you for visiting.


On November 22 Joe was rushed by ambulance to the hospital for stomach pains so bad he couldn't stand. The ER immediately diagnosed him with pancreatitis. A few  hours after he was diagnosed, his heart rate began to climb and they could not get it to come down. The Doctor rushed him up to CICU (cardiac intensive care unit). There they were able to get his heart rate under control. He was very uncomfortable and in pain through the night. The next morning, Thanksgiving, Joes condition turned from bad to worse. His pancreas and kidneys had shut down and his abdomen was full of fluid. He become septic. He was severely dehydrated due to the fluid building up in space behind the pancreas.   Nurses and doctors rushed in and began to save his life. They put him on a ventilator and put him in a medically induced coma and immediately began dialysis to clean his blood. Joe kept coming out of the coma, trying to pull the ventilator out so they restrained his wrists to the bed and they  had to chemically paralyze  him. He stayed this way until Friday the 24th when  they took him off the CRRT dialysis machine. He continues to get dialysis daily for only 3 hours a day. On that Friday the nurse also took him off the paralysis meds to see if he was responsive and could follow commands. He was able to nod his head, but as the medication continued to wear off, he became agitated  and confused and tugged the restraints so hard that he broke one, so they put him back under the chemical paralysis. The next couple of days  were groundhogs day...draw blood for tests, x-ray of chest for pneumonia, check abdominal pressure, dialysis,   and keep his vitals in check.