On August 8th, Christopher's day started like any race track day. He picked up his tow truck from McDevitt’s and then went to Wilmot Race Track, which gave him great joy.

While at the track, Christoper collapsed a total of three times. Each time he regained consciousness, his answer was “I’m fine”, and was back to watching the races. After the third time, the rescue was called. He was transported by Salem Lakes Rescue to Aurora Medical Center, and then transported to St Luke's.

There, Christopher’s medical team put in an external pacemaker, and was placed in the ICU. Once stable, they began running a battery of tests on Chris. We came to find out that the left side of the heart was not working. While looking at the echo, they found issues with two of his valves and saw something surrounding the valves. This was when we were told he would need to have two valves replaced and a permanent pacemaker put in place. Chris said, “Okay, when can we do this?” He wanted to see his children, Mason, Easton and Kadence, and this was the last time his children were able to see him.

A battery of tests and blood cultures were taken and found an infection of MRSA throughout his body, which required a lot of antibiotics. As the infection progressed, the doctors decided he could no longer wait for surgery and Friday was the day.

The surgery was a success for his heart, however they found damage on his heart that was determined to be sepsis. This led to a permanent pacemaker being put in. The infection was still present in his blood and began taking over many organs. At this point, Chris was on total life support.

On Thursday, we were told there was nothing left that could be done. The liver, kidney, and lungs were no longer able to function, and Chris had been in a coma he would not wake from. We made the most difficult decision, as a family, to remove his life support. Shortly after, Christopher passed away peacefully.

He leaves behind his beautiful wife Sara, and his children Mason, Easton and Kadence. They are devastated with the loss of a husband and father. This will be a long road for them as they process and adjust to this loss.

Please find it in your heart to donate to his Go Fund Me to help with his wife Sara and his three children in the wake of his loss. Any amount would be greatly appreciated by all of them.