My Battle with Merkel Cell Cancer

in a voice I'd never heard her use before, "tell them to get all that stuff off of him so I can
hug him one last time."
I walked to the nurse and told him, my words by now interspersed with sounds of crying.
The nurse said he was on it, and within seconds my dad's body was clear of all of the
medical equipment. She held him. I described what I observed in my eulogy, and the
written version is part of this blog as a separate post. This post is about my dad's last day
of life, and sadly he died at 10:55 p.m.
This isn't the kind of news you can deliver to your wife or brothers by email, so I called
them. I called my youngest brother first, since it was the middle of the night there already.
My phone bill shows it was a 3 minute call, and I'm sure I spent the first two minutes of
that just sobbing, unable to say the words he knew were coming. The remainder of the
calls were more cogent but no easier to make. Finally, I let dad's online family of fellow
MCC fighters know the bad news.
** Email: Date: Wed, 18 Apr 2012 23:13:51 -0700
Subject: docdave passed away
To: [Merkel Cell Cancer Google Group]
Will be a blog post after I get my thoughts together. He died 10:55 pm **
Dr. Nghiem played a critical role in dad's care, and while I focused strongly on family in
the days and weeks following dad's death, I wrote Dr. Nghiem first thing in the morning
the day after my dad's passing:
** Email: Date: Thu, 19 Apr 2012 08:16:56 -0700
Subject: Dave Shuster
From: Gary Shuster []
To: Paul Nghiem []
Dr. Nghiem
Thank you so much for the support you provided my dad. He died last night. Some
people would like to make donations to MCC research in his name. Could you please
provide me with the information I need to put into obituaries to instruct people as to how
to make those donations?
Again, thank you for what you did for him. I don't think anything could have extended his
life beyond the years he had, but thanks to you the treatments he underwent were not the
debilitating and ultimately unhelpful ones such as a radical neck dissection. Thanks to
that, he was able to take many cruises and vacations and enjoy birthdays with his
grandkids. **
His response, as always, was prompt and written from the heart.
** Email: Subject: Re: Dave Shuster
From: Paul Nghiem []
Date: Thu, 19 Apr 2012 09:36:39 -0700
To: Gary Shuster []
Dear Gary,
I am so sorry for your loss.
It was a pleasure and an honor to take care of your Dad & to follow his remarkable
journey/battle as chronicled by such a humanistic, articulate physician.
Thank you for thinking of others with MCC at this time regarding donations in honor of
your Father.
Relevant information is below, and can be obtained directly via:
http://www.merkelcell.org/help/index.php
My Battle with Merkel Cell Cancer
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