Born with heart problems, doctors didn't expect him to live more than 5 days. At four months he went through an angiogram and doctors discovered he had patent ductus arteriosis, a complete A-V heart block and valve regurgitation. They corrected the PDA with surgery and we almost lost him again with pneumonia because a lung was punctured. He did quite well after that and was able to live a quite normal life through school and college. He did faint at church camp when he was 13 and more tests revealed it was time to implant a pacemaker. He was sent to the UCLA Hospital when he was 14 to have that done. He did well in school, played clarinet, saxaphone, and keyboard in school bands and bagpipes with his high school bagpipers. He was a good student, active in 4-H, earning first prize awards at the California State Fair for his photography. He is listed the Who's Who of American Students for 2 years. He attended his first two years of college at Fresno Pacific College and worked at Master Copy on off hours. Since CSUF would only accept half of his credits as required credits, he decided to attend Fresno City College with his wife-to-be. After two years there, and a long term goal of becoming a pediatric cardiologist (he highly respected the one who cared for him), working at Mervyn's and 6 weeks of marriage, he had a cardiac arrest while driving to school. Doctors said he had minimal activity in his cerebral cortex, caused by being clinically dead for about 10 minuites on a warm day. He had a severe brain injury and they didn't expect him to live. Three months later he was released to the care of his nursing student wife, his mother and father. He had to learn to walk, talk, swallow (because of damage to his vocal chords from being entibated 2 weeks), and do everything all over again. He worked hard in therapies and at home, sometimes getting tired and discouraged. He and Anna bought their own home in Fresno, two blocks from his parents home. Anna stayed with him for five years then they separated. He missed her greatly but continued to improve and to finally enjoy life again. His witty sense of humor returned. We took some great trips with him and twice a week he went to the City of Fresno Head Trauma Therapeutic Recreation program, once a month to a brain injury support group, took some enabler classes at FCC, went to Sunday School and Church every Sunday, and made many good friends. He looked forward to each of these activities and they kept him loving life. In the last weeks, he began having swelling in his feet. He often woke at night with discomfort in his chest. We watched his blood pressure and pulse closely and his doctor saw him once a week, and talked to us in between visits. He scheduled an appointment with UCSF Hospital and we took him there for a heart transplant evaluation. That was not considered in the condition David was in, but they assigned him to a room where he stayed the next 11 days. They got the swelling in his feet down so that he could walk again, and I was getting up hopes that he would recover, but then the doctors called us in to suggest hospice. Since I thought hospice was in-home nursing to give a seriously ill person the best chance, I agreed. I was confused, in shock and in no condition to deal with the next four days while he was dying. I miss him so. He was so good natured, loving, kind and a perfect son.