Kim W., MS

Eleven years ago, my husband died from lung cancer. Harry joined the United States Air Force immediately out of high school, and saw many conflicts and danger, but little did he know the thing that would end his life was hanging from his fingers. He told me cigarettes were passed out in the military just like MREs. They were given out with every meal and often cartons were passed out to share. After retirement from the Air Force, he had yearly check-ups with his primary care provider, but never any scans to look at his lungs, even though he had smoked all of his adult life.

Then one day, out of the blue, his hands didn’t work right. The primary care provider sent him for a test to check for a stroke, and they concluded he had a brain tumor. He was transferred to a larger hospital for more tests. While waiting for approval from insurance he had a seizure. Eventually it was discovered he had lung cancer that had metastasized to his brain. He immediately had two brain surgeries, followed by whole brain radiation for several weeks, since that was his most pressing problem at the time.

He saw several oncologists and many other doctors. We were told he would probably live about 8 months. Harry had stage 4 lung cancer. Wow! The oncologist said he could do chemo and radiation. It might give him a few more months, and miracles do happen, so Harry decided to try. But it was for nothing. He died eight months later just as the oncologist had predicted. He eventually had to stop the chemo because he was so sick.

Before he was diagnosed, he was 6’2”, 240 pounds and when he died, he weighed 140 pounds. He was 54 years old. He lived his last days at home on hospice surrounded by his family. As the fluid was filling his lungs, what little speech he had turned into garbled sounds. Two hours before he took his last breath, he held his hands up in the air and very clearly said “Angel” even though he hadn’t had any intelligible speech in days. We listened through a stethoscope to his very last heartbeat as he left the world.

Later that year on his birthday, his grandchildren sang “Happy Birthday to Pop Pop” while holding candles up to the sky. Lung cancer screening should be a part of yearly checkups, especially to patients with smoking history. I believe if his lung cancer had been caught earlier, Harry would still be here.