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Against All Odds Part 4

Against All Odds Part 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5

But in early 1993, something changed. David's cough was growing louder and deeper. His face would turn purple and the veins in his neck would protrude. One afternoon, a nurse named Dana Thompson dropped by to see them. Kim was watching a soap opera while David sat quietly in his chair. Dana noticed that David didn't tease her the way he usually did. He just kept staring at one of the actors on TV.
Finally he blurted out, "I wish I was that handsome."
"I said, 'David, you are handsome.'" Dana remembers.
"But I looked at him and I realized he was changing. His face was getting puffy from fluid retention. He used to lift weights, and now all the muscles in his arms were gone. Kim just gave me this sad look and I thought to myself, My God, my God, it's David who's going to die first.'"

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David tried to assure Kim that there was nothing to worry about but he didn't tell her what the doctor had said after a recent check up. The disease, which had been mostly dormant, had unexpectedly ambushed him. His lungs were becoming stiff with scar tissue. His bronchial lubes were closing up. His heart was not pumping enough oxygenated blood. If the assault continued, David would lose more and more oxygen and slowly start choking to death.

It was a race against time. David said he would not waste a single moment: In July, to celebrate their birthdays, David's twenty-sixth, Kim's twenty-fourth, he insisted that they take the week-long Florida vacation that they had always talked about.
"Only once did they feel good enough to leave the condo and go to the beach." Says Kim's sister, Mandy, who travelled with them.
"They both carried their portable oxygen tanks. Kim couldn't get too deep into the water because of her balance problems, and David couldn't get in because of his lack of strength. They finally just sat on the beach and let the waves roll up to their feet. They knew it would be the last time they didn't have a care in the world. People would walk by and stare, but Kim and David just looked at one another, holding hands."

Three months later, David and Kim went to see Dr. Kramer for a checkup.

While Kim waited in another room, Dr. Kramer studied David's oxygen levels. David couldn't say more than two or three words without needing to take a breath.
"You've got to go into the hospital." Dr. Kramer said.
"And this time, I don't think you'll be coming out."
David managed only one response.
"Make sure Kim is okay."

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Dr. Kramer walked across the hall to tell her. After a long silence, she asked if David could go home for one more night, back to their little one-bedroom apartment, where she could cook him a meal. When Dr. Kramer softly said no, Kim dropped her head and tried not to cry.
"Don't let him suffer." Ahe said.
During thirty years as a specialist in cystic fibrosis, Dr. Kramer had watched more than four hundred of his young patients die. For his own sanity, he distanced himself emotionally from cases like David's. But at that moment, he gathered Kim in his arms and wept.

David was admitted to the hospital on the afternoon of Wednesday, October 21. Throughout the ordeal, Kim sat by David's side. By Monday, David's lips and fingernails were turning blue, and nurses had put an oxygen mask over his face. When they brought in a morphine machine to relieve some of the pain, Kim knew it was over.

"David, not yet." She said, but he was unable to speak.
All he could do was mouth "I love you" to his young wife and blow her a kiss. Just outside the door was the usual noise of the hospital - carts rolling by, people moving with quickened footsteps, doctors speaking in half-finished sentences. But at the bed, Kim and David stared at each other in silence, exchanging one long look of grief and love.

He died at 5.50 a.m. on October 26. Kim was the only one in the room.

She wiped off his face with a tissue and then called for the nurse.

Against All Odds Part 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5

 

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