Blake Newman, Kate Newman, and I are heart broken over the loss of Michael Newman. As many of you know, he was a fighter from the beginning. Mike was born with Tetralogy of Fallot, a congenital heart defect. He had his first surgery at four weeks old, a Blalock Tussig shunt (there is a great movie about this called, "Something the Lord Made). At 14 months, they did the corrective repair and removed his pulmonic valve. When Mike was 10, they replaced the pulmonic valve. When M...ike was 18, we were told his valve was failing and he had a minimally invasive Melody heart valve placed inside the old valve prosthesis. All was going well, once again, and at age 21, he went into DKA (diabetic ketoacidosis) and was diagnosed as a Type 1 diabetic. That was a struggle for Mike. He bounced between hypo and hyperglycemia and had several emergency visits for that. We thought everything was going along fine. He got a great report from his cardiologist this past Monday and we thought we were rolling right along. The next day Tuesday, about 10pm, Mike started not feeling good and had a vomiting episode after I went to bed. When I got up, he was running a fever, 101.5. I gave him Advil around 0400. When I got home, he fever was 102.1! I gave him more Advil and called the  nurse advice line and she got me authorization to take Mike to urgent care. Mike said he was feeling better, so I didn't make him go, he didn't want to. When I checked on him later, his fever was 99.9. I gave him a couple of more Advil before I went to bed. When I checked on him in the morning, he had no fever, but said his stomach hurt, but not bad. I decided if he wasn't better when I got home, I was going to take him to the ER. He told me he felt better, but didn't want to eat. At 0330 on Friday, he used his panic button, that we installed because of his diabetes, and he said he needed to go to the ER because he didn't feel good. So, our journey started... The doctors in Denver thought it was toxic shock/septic shock, cause unknown. For three days and three hospitals, Mike remained positive and interactive with the doctors and nurses. He would thank all them for taking care of him. He's always been a fighter and was until the very last moment, this event got the better of him. I never thought I'd lose a child before I left this world. I love you Michael...
Michael LOVED AF sports -especially Hockey & Basketball. He also loved to golf. Please help in anyway to support the Newman family during this very difficult time.