Side of Kraut: Tense moments in the hospital
Casey Krautkramer, Reporter, The Record-Review A potentially life-changing event will alter a person’s view on the world. You’ll want to spend as much time with your loved one so you have fond last memories of this person in case he or she passes away.
Last week, I discovered that my father, Jerome Krautkramer of Marathon, needed surgery on Monday to have a surgeon install a stent, which is a mesh-like metal tube, to repair a bleeding ulcer on his aorta. This was a serious surgery because the aorta is a main artery that carries blood away from the heart to the rest of a person’s body.
My father needed to have this surgery immediately, because if the aorta would rupture, the surgeon told him the internal bleeding would cause him to faint and he’d be dead as soon as he fell down onto the floor. Luckily, our family’s prayers were answered when Dr. Tahlia Weis, vascular surgeon at Marshfield Medical Center, performed a successful surgery on my father. My father stayed overnight in the hospital on Monday and was able to return home on Tuesday to recover from his surgery.
On Monday morning, I dropped off my daughters at their Marshfield schools and then joined my mother with my father in pre-op at Marshfield Medical Center before his surgery began.
I learned a lot about my family’s genetic history on Monday. For example, the anesthesiologist told my father in pre-op that hospitals have red flagged the last name “Krautkramer” because it is associated with the genetic disease malignant hypothermia that can occur during surgery. My father told the anesthesiologist that he doesn’t believe our family is one of the Krautkramer families who migrated from Germany to the United States that has genetic malignant hypothermia, but nonetheless, the hospital staff took necessary precautions just in case.
After my father’s surgery, Dr. Weiss showed my mother and I x-rays of the bleeding ulcer on his aorta and how she installed a stent to repair this main artery. She told us to make sure my father takes it easy and doesn’t do any heavy lifting in the next few weeks to ensure his stitches do not come out. Dr. Weiss told us she once performed a heart surgery on a neighbor of hers in Marshfield. She told the man to take it easy at home, only to find him on a ladder with a chainsaw when she arrived home from work. She joked that those are the joys of working as a surgeon in a small city like Marshfield.
While visiting with my father after his surgery, I discovered that my late great-uncle Walter Krautkramer of Marathon needed surgery to install a new heart valve. A heart valve is like a door that opens and closes to let blood flow away from the heart to other areas of a person’s body. My late uncle Lloyd Krautkramer of Marathon also needed to have his heart valve replaced, so obviously this is a genetic issue in my family.
I don’t normally travel far distances to watch regular-season varsity basketball games or wrestling matches, but when I discovered my father needed a ride on Saturday night to Rhinelander, I quickly jumped at the opportunity to drive my father and daughters to the Marathon varsity boys basketball game against Rhinelander.
During halftime, I had spectator Dana Blume use my cell phone camera to take a picture of me with my father and daughters in the bleachers at the game. My youngest daughter, Madison, found a baseball underneath the bleachers and then had my father autograph it “Grandpa” for her in case there were complications with his surgery on Monday.
Most of us get so busy in our daily home and work lives that we don’t make spending time with our family members a priority, until a potential life-changing event occurs. Fortunately, my father had a successful surgery on Monday so now my daughters and I will be able to create more fond memories with him in the future.
