This was three weeks ago. Dad died this morning after six days on a ventilator.

Pursing herd immunity puts us all at risk of this. Please vote for Joe Biden tomorrow

okay, eyes are on this thread so I want to give you an idea of what someone like my dad goes through.

hours after he sent that text, he collapsed at home in the bathroom and hit his head. He had to be taken to the hospital. They fixed him up, COVID symptoms weren't terrible yet

His breathing was a little labored, but since they gave him the option of going home he took it. A few hours after that, he felt like he was having trouble breathing and went BACK to the ER. He was admitted, this was early Tuesday, and I believe they placed him in the ICU

They were giving him oxygen to get his O2 levels up. I called his room, spoke to him for 45 min. He sounded great. I was expecting wheezing, shortness of breath, but he was talking normal. He was there Tues-Friday, at which point his levels were good enough to discharge.

By the end of the weekend, his O2 levels at home were so low that he had to go back to the hospital. I spoke to him Monday, a week after his positive test. He again sounded normal. The next day, they said "no voice calls." It was costing him too much oxygen

Over the next week, his levels kept dipping. They kept upping his O2. They wanted to keep him off the ventilator because they feared if they put him on, he wouldn't get off it.

Then a week ago tomorrow, they had to intubate and sedate.

He'd have a good day followed by a rough night. We'd see his levels inch closer to the standard for getting him off the vent, only to see something else go wrong, like the kidneys. But it all felt like he could come out of it with some luck. Until Saturday.

Multiple organ failure was a fear. They arranged for me to call and talk at him via Facetime. It wasn't said, but I knew the subtext: "This is where you should say goodbye."

I couldn't say goodbye. I told him that. I told him about the live read, and my son's Halloween.

I reminded him of a DUMB & DUMBER quote he loved. When Jim Carrey hears his odds are "one in a million," Carrey says, "So you're saying there's a chance!"

He quoted that all the time. I told him I needed him to believe it. He had to believe it because *I* believed it

Sunday started with some encouraging numbers related to the vent. And some other warnings in his blood and his stomach.

I'm not ready to talk about last night. But it was bad.

Around 3:45am, I got to talk to him. I told him this time I had to say goodbye.

He died an hour later

Three weeks.

Three weeks that happened SEVEN MONTHS after we started taking this seriously.

Donald Trump murdered my father. Anyone pulling the lever for him tomorrow wants him to get away with it.

If this thread will help someone in your life, please share it.