Michael’s Story

Site created on April 4, 2018


Dear family and friends, 

As many if you know Michael has battled several health challenges through this life, more frequently in the last year. He continuously fights to overcome the hurdles of disease and illness, he is strong and resilient person. Despite his strength,  the toll of continually fighting has caused damage to vital organs and their ability to perform their functions. In the last year he has gone through several new health journeys with his heart, kidneys and pancreas. More recently starting dialysis and completing acute rehab to rebuild strength in his body.




Early morning Wednesday April 4th he awoke with shortness of breath. He woke up Mom who called EMS, from our home to Zeeland hospital he went into full cardiac arrest and paramedics performed CPR for over 30 minutes before he was resuscitated. He refuses to go without a fight :) 




Currently he is at Spectrum Butterworth Hospital in Grand Rapids. He is intubated and being “cooled” in hopes of preserving cellular function. The biggest concern at this time is brain activity and function, he has a wonderful team of doctors who are monitoring him and developing a plan to keep him comfortable as we wait to see how extensive the damage is. He will be warmed and evaluated in the next few days to see what can be done. While the doctors are optimistic they are reiterating that this is a very bad situation. 




Of course cell service is not great and because of all the information coming and going, we are going to try to use this as our updating source. We ask for all your prayers and thank you all for thinking about us as we try to process. All of our love to you:) 




Love, 

Carol, Kristen and Ian 

Newest Update

Journal entry by Kristen Caprarola

Dad is one of the most animated, compassionate and talkative people we know but sadly he is unable to be himself at this time. In the many years we have spent sitting with him in hospitals we have always been able to communicate with him, even if he was kicking us out of the room:) That may be the toughest part about our current situation. We can't talk to him about how he is feeling, we can't look into his eyes and see him. We have had some setbacks today that make the reality of what we are facing more "real". While he is fighting hard we are worried about his ability to be the man we know and love. Right now we are in a strict holding pattern and can't rush any decision making. He had a seizure today and initial scans show brain swelling with small amounts of other activity. His care has been being managed by a MICU team (Medical Intensive Care Unit) and will now be shared with a Neuroscience team. Tomorrow they will take him off of slow dialysis for a short portion of time, this will allow the Neuroscience team to get a head CT and perform some tests. On Sunday we should have a conclusive idea of what he is facing and what can be done. We do not want him to suffer in any way and we are working together to give him all the support we can. While we haven't had good news today we are slightly uplifted by our love for him and the joy he always brings to every situation. We know God has a plan and that while we are not the most patient people we have to wait.
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