On Tuesday Morning Dr. Nawaz says my father looks better and the white count is down to 20,000. The Foley can be removed. Dr. Nawaz will come by later in the afternoon and will aim for an evening release. I leave my father with Nomeda to go home to bring some soup in a thermos. Almost as soon as I arrive Dr. Weiner calls and introduces himself. He asks if my father has an advance directive and inquires about my wishes re code and resuscitation. I tell him that we adhere to Orthodox Jewish law (Halacha) and that I hope to be taking him home that evening. He asks me what I’m talking about, saying my father is very sick. “He is septic and if the sepsis is refractory to treatment death is imminent,” he tells me. “He may recover,” he says, “but I’ve been doing this a long time. Let me ask you – how long do you think people live? How many 105-year-olds do you know? How many 100 year-olds? Have you ever asked yourself why?” I am simply stunned.

I drove to Dr. Nawaz’s office and asked that he call me ASAP. I went to the hospital and found Dr. Weiner at the nurse’s station. He told me that people as old as my father usually don’t overcome pneumonia. He asked me if I remembered the anthrax attacks. “We know that antibiotics kill anthrax, so why did so many people die anyway? Because it’s not the bacteria, but the cascading sets of inflammatory and immune responses that once started cannot be overcome. If your father would be a tennis player or would jog 5 miles every day that would be different, but he isn’t.” I reiterate that my
father is in very good health, and he says, “Let’s see what the antibiotics will do. We’ll know in a day or so.”

Dr. Nawaz called me later in the afternoon and reassured me. He told me that Dr. Weiner was merely painting a worst-case scenario and not to worry. I should think of this as a wake-up call that my father is “not getting any younger.” He would like to keep my father in the hospital another day. My father had a dinner of roast beef and mashed potatoes as my friend Gary was visiting.

Rabbi Anemer had suggested I call Dr. Chanales for a second opinion, and Dr. Chanales visits my father that evening. He tells me that if it were his dad he wouldn’t put him on a ventilator should the need arise, although it’s not a “totally unreasonable” thing to do.” He says he has cases where he walks out of the hospital room shaking his head and wondering “what are they thinking?” My father’s case is not like that, but still no rabbi should render an Halachic opinion without living with the family and witnessing the hardships that result. He observes that if I were to consult Rabbi Breitowitz I might get a different opinion than that of Rabbi Anemer.

My father’s pulse O2 is in the upper 80’s. He’s put on “vapotherm,” allowing 100% oxygen through a canula right after Dr. Chanales leaves. His O2 goes up to 92.