It is with a heavy heart and profound sadness that we have to inform you all of Stephens passing. He has now found his forever home in heaven. We gave a brief overview of his medical situation in the previous journal so I will elaborate now. Stephen struggled with uncontrolled Diabetes and liver issues. He was admitted to the hospital with an infection. He had a bad infection in his mouth due to a bad tooth and also had a UTI.  Because these went untreated and the amount of infection within Stephens body this turned to Sepsis. The Sepsis did a major number on multiple organs within his body. He already had liver damage, then the sepsis attacked his kidneys, giving him an acute kidney injury that stopped his kidneys from working. The Sepsis also attacked his heart causing him to have endocarditis( vegetation of the heart). The endocarditis created a mass on his heart that would break off and scattered infection within Stephens body.  An MRI was done and showed that these break offs did go to Stephens brain causing stokes in his brain.  Stephen then started to struggle to breath and went into respiratory distress. This was originally corrected with just oxygen. This brings us to Tuesday Feb 7th.  On Tuesday when I and Dan arrived, he was just starting dialysis and was alert. As dialysis came to an end he was very tired. Then PT came in and moved him around a little as he was not using his legs or his left arm. After PT left, he was very tired and slept hard for 4 hours. When we left, he was still sleeping. The nurse attempted to wake him to give him another Blood pressure med and couldn't get him to wake up. The ICU doc came and and found that Stephen was not alert and was not protecting his airways. The Doctor then called Dan and informed him that they need to ventilate Stephen as he was not breathing on his own or protecting his airways. Dan and I went back to the hospital and spoke to the ICU doctor and was told that he was not going to bounce back from all of this. 

At 2:25pm today, Stephen passed on  with his family around him and surrounded by love.  We appreciate everyone's prayers and positive thoughts. As his family, we are comforted in knowing that Stephen has found his place and is forever at peace with his big brother and many loved ones.  There will be a celebration of life in the near future