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| Notes for Henry Wayne BRINDLEY | ||||||||||
| Flu victim remembered as 'kind man': Widow: Sickness began three days after wedding The Cullman Times Published on: 01-16-2004 Henry Wayne Brindley of Vinemont was a hard-working, easygoing, big, brawny guy. Working in the woods as a logger for most of his years, riding motorcycles for fun and driving a city garbage truck for a living, he was hale and hearty -- never sick a day in his life until he was cut down by, of all things, the flu. He was 32 years old. "He was a very kind, loving man and funny, too," said his sister-in-law, Cindy Patterson of Cullman. "He could always make you laugh, even on your saddest days." "Even though he looked like a big, bald-headed scary-looking biker dude," added her sister, Jennifer Patterson Brindley. She had been married to Henry for only two weeks when he died of cardiopulmonary arrest resulting from complications of influenza. The nightmare began just three days after their wedding Dec. 6, when her husband began having dizzy spells while driving his city garbage route. "He was running over curbs, so for the protection of the guys on the back, he got a substitute driver and came home," Jennifer remembered. "The next day, he went to Cullman Urgent Care; he felt bad but had no fever and no respiratory symptoms. He was just dizzy and had no sense of taste. He had a little bit of body aches, but nothing to know he had the flu." When flu was diagnosed, Henry stayed home in bed for a few days. He felt well enough to put up a Christmas tree at the motorcycle shop, then came home. "I work second shift at a Chevron station. When I got home, he was at the back door waiting on me," said Jennifer. "He was leaning on the dryer and said he couldn't breathe. He was just panting...gasping for breath. I literally had to dress him; he had developed a cough and had pulled a muscle. He couldn't stand up and couldn't do nothing. "I was scared, but I remained calm and took him to the emergency room at CRMC (Cullman Regional Medical Center). They gave him a breathing treatment and took a chest X-ray. The doctor said he had flu and bronchitis...and gave him a steroid shot and Demerol." Armed with a prescription for steroids and pain pills, the couple went out the next morning to get the medications. She was shocked by her husband's level of exhaustion and weakness when they returned home. "He sat down on the couch, and I said, 'Uh-uh, let's go back. We'll see a different doctor and see what they say,'" Jennifer said. "So we went back to the emergency room. They said, 'We're going to do an X-ray,' but I said, 'They just did one last night.' This doctor looked at the X-ray and said, 'There is a mass on your lung; we want to do a CT scan to get a better look.'" The CT scan revealed pneumonia, and the doctor admitted Henry to the hospital. He also tested positive for the flu. The next morning, "the doctor said his oxygen level was fluctuating so he wanted to put him in CCU to keep a better eye on him." The hospital staff gave him breathing treatments and oxygen. After three days, they put him on a ventilator "because he hadn't slept for a week," said Jennifer. "He was scared to go to sleep because he couldn't breathe. They drained 600 cc's of fluid off one lung. They kept him sedated and said they had given him enough to knock out a horse, but he kept waking up." At 3:30 a.m. on Dec. 20, hospital staff came to the family room where Jennifer was staying and woke her up. "They told me his lungs had started filling back up with fluid, and the ventilator won't work if they're full of fluid. They said the doctor was working with him and trying to get the fluid off his lungs so the ventilator could work," she said. "Then the doctor came in and told me he died. They had to shut the door, because I was running out and screaming, because I didn't believe her. Dr. (Melinda) Hart was wonderful, and Dr. (Mir Kwon Wu) Varquez did everything she could. I feel like they both did everything they could. "He wouldn't go to sleep because, I think, he knew. He took my wedding rings and rearranged them," she said, pointing to the engagement ring and wedding ring in reversed positions -- the way widows wear them. She has not taken them off since the day he put them in what ironically became their proper place. Henry and his doctors battled against the raging infections that, in the end, triumphed over their best efforts. What started out as Influenza B progressed to double pneumonia -- the bacterial kind. The bacteria got into his bloodstream, "and when it does that, it shuts down your organs," Jennifer said. He had strep throat, too, they discovered. The one thing she wants people to know, she said, is, "If you have the flu, and if you're not better in four or five days, go back to the doctor." "And make them do something," said Patterson. "Because you know how your body is. You know what you feel like," said Jennifer. "I just wonder why they couldn't have caught it sooner, why the doctor didn't see it on the X-ray, because it was the same X-ray. I guess it just took its toll. He was a smoker, but the doctors told me that had nothing to do with it; they said his lungs and heart looked healthy." Regarding Henry's course of treatment, Maria Stanford, CRMC director of marketing, said, "As of April 14, 2003, due to the federal act that was implemented for all health care agencies known as the Health Information Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), we're not allowed to discuss patient information." Jennifer said she has her good days and bad days, adding, "It's going to be hard on his birthday -- Feb. 14. Christmas was hard, and New Year's was hard. My friends and family have been keeping me busy. It's amazing how many friends he had; he was just that type of person. He did not meet a stranger." Raised up around Oden Ridge, a former student at Fairview High School, her 5'11", 220-pound husband "loved motorcycles," she said, "I think more than he loved life." She wants him to be remembered "just as a happy-go-lucky guy. He was never in a bad mood unless his motorcycle was tore up. Then he was PMS-ing -- that's 'Parked Motorcycle Syndrome.'" ------------------------------------------------------------------------ | ||||||||||
| Last Modified 22 Jul 2005 | Created 14 Nov 2011 by Reunion for Macintosh |