Honoring Hank Brake IV: Support for Final Expenses & Family

To family, friends, and all who knew my father, Henry Louis Brake IV,

Today (1/19/25) was the day that my father, better known as Hank, passed away.

Hank was stubborn and had a drive to beat the odds, continuing to live every time he came close to death. For context, my father went through at least four rounds of CPR that I am aware of over the past several years, making it through all of them.

He has spent the majority of his adult life in and out of the hospital for a variety of reasons, but especially more so recently.

The last 5 years have been incredibly rough, particularly 2024.

It had gotten to the point that he spent nearly 11 months out of the year between the hospital and a rehab facility to rebuild strength.

This most recent stay, Hank faced having the flu, bacterial pneumonia, malnourishment from digestive issues, and a chronic infection in his knee. His pre-existing conditions of diabetes and kidney failure further complicated his condition, among a variety of other complications. Hank was in the ICU and in serious trouble.

When I first saw him after being admitted to the ICU, he was hooked up to the ventilator. The doctors advised me that he may not even be able to come off the ventilator and that he might not be aware of who we are. I was told that all the ICU could do at this point was correct his numbers and keep him alive. The doctor in charge of his care told me that I had a decision to make. We were given access to a conference room on the ICU floor to discuss these options with family both present and over the phone. Knowing my father, knowing that he's a fighter, we decided the best option was to take him off the ventilator and give him an opportunity to fight through this. The doctor wanted us to transition him immediately into comfort care, which is essentially hospice with a bunch of pain medications to help ease the pain away. Instead, we decided we would only move him to comfort care if his condition worsened or he had to be put back on the ventilator, which we were told could only be done by tracheostomy at this point.

Amazingly, as he always does, as soon as the ventilator tube came out, he went straight to talking to everyone in the room. It hurt for him to talk, but as stubborn as he is, he still chose to speak. After a while of having the tube out, he became more lucid and made his own decision to fight. He told the doctor that he wanted every effort to be made to save him.

Unfortunately, by the next morning, the pain was so excruciating that my father realized that he did not want to live under these circumstances. The infection in his knee would have required amputation and even with amputation, his chances of pulling through were almost nonexistent. I spoke with him directly and asked him to tell me what he wanted to do and he told me he wanted the pain to stop. I asked him if he wanted to transition into comfort care and he told me that he did. A short time later, I got the doctor in charge of his care to come and speak to him. My father was lucid enough to answer his questions and express to him that he was ready to move into comfort care. That was yesterday (1/18/25). In his stubborn self, he lasted much longer than any of the doctors expected. He spent the night next to Cathy Bailey, his fiancée, while she played recordings of his prior singing performances. Eventually, he couldn't do it anymore and passed away earlier today.

My dad lived a long, interesting life.

I love you, Dad.

**Any donations in excess of the amount needed to cover cremation and related expenses will be kept to cover personal expenses while I am away from work.

***The fundraiser mentions a service date of 2/2/25, no dates or services have been determined at this time, the date set is strictly for the fundraiser.