The Beautiful Susan Died

I am still in shock.

Yesterday, a friend of the beautiful Susan from my ILD Support Group phoned to tell me that she had died. We just had lunch together less than a month ago, she had been struggling with her ILD (IPF and/or HP) and was on supplemental oxygen 24/7 but was managing.

Susan had terrible pain in her hip and neck then one day her husband noticed that her hand was a bit like a claw and she was unable to grasp anything. The left side of her face started to change. They quickly drove to our university hospital, where she had another stroke. She was in horrible pain for two days and they were trying not to give her a lot of medication because the major pain meds can cause additional bleeding into the brain.

Two days later, they tested the pressure on her brain, normal being 2%, only to discover it was 55%. They removed a bit of her skull to allow the brain to swell but they only gave her 50/50% chance of coming out of the surgery.

They waited a few days. She never woke up.

She died on January 3rd at 5:30AM.

Susan was a public defender who represented the inmates on death row at San Quentin. She argued cases in front of the State Supreme Court. She was deeply respected, loved her job, whip smart and a mother and wife. Her two boys are in their 20s and her husband is an attorney. They were a very close family.

She was forced to retired less than a year ago because of her disease but she really didn't want to leave. It was hard to hand over cases to other attorneys and to walk away from it all. She was a remarkable human being.

I will deeply miss my friend.