Celebrating Hunters Life

This is my son, Hunter. He was born November 18, 1993. From the time he was six months old, Hunter had very bad asthma. Even as an infant, I would hold the mask on his face to give him his nebulizer treatments. As Hunter got older, his asthma did not get any better. But Hunter grew into a kind, loving, and generous young man. He would give you the shirt off his back and the last dollar in his pocket if you needed it. Hunter was always quick to smile and even quicker to laugh. His laughter was contagious. Hunter was the second of six children and he loved to tease his four sisters. His little brother thought he was just the coolest guy ever, and Hunter felt the same way about him. Hunter loved the outdoors and animals of all shapes and sizes, even though he was allergic to just about everything that grew or breathed. He was always bringing animals home; a mama possum and her baby, a baby bat, a squirrel, a chicken, a four foot heron with a broken wing, and a bunch of ducks he hatched in his closet that thought he was their mom, are just a few of the "pets" he had over the years. His love of animals and the outdoors led to many asthma attacks for Hunter. He was hospitalized many times because of them. On September 19, 2016, Hunter had another asthma attack. But this one was not like others he'd had before. Hunter was with his boss when the attack started and lost consciousness. His boss called 911 and started CPR. The ambulance arrived at 11:07 PM and EMTs began to care for Hunter and transported him to the Danville hospital. His pulse did not return until 11:33 PM. During this time Hunters brain was deprived of oxygen. Hunter was stabilized and transferred to Presence hospital in Champaign. It was early on the morning of September 20th. At this time Hunter was sedated and on a ventilator, he had not regained consciousness since his asthma attack. Hunter remained on sedation for approximately 36 hours and showed no signs of improvement. On Wednesday afternoon the sedative medications were stopped to see if Hunter would regain consciousness and start breathing on his own. Several hours later, Hunter still showed no improvement. He was not breathing on his own and he had not woken up. Hunter had had an EEG at 8 o'clock that morning and we had waited all day for the neurologist to talk to us about the results. It took him 11 hours to come and talk to us. The neurologist gave us no useful information. He beat around the bush and gave conflicting advice. He couldn't tell us how much damage Hunters brain had suffered. After speaking with him, we decided to transfer Hunter to Carle hospital. Hunter was transferred to Carle September 22 in the afternoon. Within 3 hours we had answers to almost all of our questions. Hunter had been without oxygen for too long. He suffered severe anoxic brain injury and his brain had begun to swell. The swelling was so bad it caused his brain to herniate and bulge out through the bottom of his skull. Hunter would not be waking up. On September 23, 2016 @ 2:58 PM Hunter was officially declared brain dead. He was 22 years old. In honor of Hunter and the kindness and generosity he showed to others, even complete strangers, our family has decided to donate Hunters organs so that others may live fuller lives because of him. We are asking for donations to help our family provide the visitation and funeral service that Hunter deserves so that those that loved him can say their goodbyes to him.