--Personal Background Regarding Jack

Jack Goaslind was a good and long-time family friend. I remember growing up in Salt Lake City as a pre-teen, where the Goaslind and Benson homes were not far from each other. My parents would regularly get together with Jack and his wife Gwen and sometimes the kids would be there, too. I remember Jack as a cheerful guy with a ready smile and easy laugh.

In fact, years later when Jack came to Tempe, Arizona, to speak at our local stake conference, I invited him over afterwards for lunch, where he sat on the living room couch and laughed uproariously over "Sunstone"-published cartoon collections drawn by Cal Grondahl--ones which took relentless and irreverent pokes at Mormon life and belief. (Cal was initially the editorial cartoonist for the Mormon Church-owned "Deseret News," a returned missionary who was hired by the "Deseret News" before Cal could finish his schooling at BYU. Cal told me that he eventually left the "Deseret News" because its publisher, Wendell Ashton, laid down the law to him--telling him that he had to choose between working for the "Deseret News" or working for "Sunstone." Cal chose "Sunstone" and moved to Ogden to take a job as the "Standard-Examiner’s" editorial cartoonist, where he had more freedom to speak through his art and where he could still do his cartoon collections for "Sunstone"). That wouldn’t have mattered to Jack, who loved Cal’s hilarious LDS-ribbing spoofs.

After I had my name removed from the membership rolls of the Mormon Church in 1993, Jack wrote me a nice letter, telling me that he didn’t know why I had left the LDS Church (he didn’t ask me to explain to him why, so I didn’t), but that he loved me and my family. I recall him as being a genuine, good guy (although I came to strongly disagree with his Mormon Church-directed role in threatening to remove official LDS sponsorship of the Boy Scouts if gays were allowed into BSA leadership positions).
_____


--Jack's Death

Recent accounts of Jack’s death in the local Salt Lake press (at least the ones that I have seen) provided no meaningful details on how or why he died.

Here is some information in that regard, as it has been relayed to me. I have Salt Lake sources in circles that are in a position to know what happened regarding Jack’s death and who have either told me the details on their own or who confirmed what was relayed to me by way of further substantiation.

Jack, I am told, was climbing some steps and fell backward, striking his head. He was admitted to the University of Utah Medical Center, where he received intake treatment. Jack, I was further told, was in relatively good shape for his age (83 at the time of his death) and, indeed, as a young man chose to go on a Mormon mission instead of competing for a spot of the U.S. Olympic ski team.

I was told that when Jack was admitted for treatment after his fall, he was communicative. Yet, he died later that night.

Jack (and this was passed on to me via certain family sources) was on blood thinner at the time of his death. These sources said that the blood thinner contributed to his demise. I was informed by another source that the blood thinner was a relatively new one and that Jack had not been on it all that long. A reported side effect of the thinner, I was told, can be significant bleeding that also can be difficult, if not impossible to stop.

In short, it was relayed to me through credible channels that Jack died from hemorrhaging that could not be staunched.

The efforts of modern medicine vs. a desire to continue service to the Mormon Church.

A life ends because the former could not save this latter-day General Authority.



Edited 20 time(s). Last edit at 05/19/2011 06:54AM by steve benson.

I do not know about new blood thinners, but there is DNA testing for warfarin (rat poison), because of people's inherited sensitivity. From the testing their dosage can be adjusted.

http://www.healthanddna.com/drug-safety-dna-testing/warfarin.html

“According to the FDA, hemorrhage during warfarin therapy is a leading cause of death in Western countries and related adverse events account for 1 in 10 hospital admissions.“

http://www.genemedrx.com/Cytochrome_P450_Metabolism_Table.php

Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 05/19/2011 12:07AM by steve benson.

and sometimes doctors kill.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iatrogenesis#Incidence_and_importance

Yes, blood thinners can be quite dangerous. Before surgery, people must go off their blood thinner or at least cut way back or they too would bleed to death. Sad way to die. If he had not been on it long, maybe he was adjusting to it also and it made him dizzy and hence the fall. It was nice how he treated you steve when you left.

I've taken care of multiple patients in the ICU who have been on anticoagulants (blood thinners) and have fallen. These people are particularly susceptible to significant brain injuries (hemorrhages) even when the levels of the drug are therapeutic.

As one ages the brain naturally shrinks and pulls away from the skull. This stretches the veins that traverse this space (subdural space) and make them susceptible to rupture when traumatized. This is why the elderly do not do well in this scenario. In the presence of anticoagulants the body's normal systems for stopping the hemorrhage are impaired. One doesn't need to fall down a flight of stairs for this to happen; I've seen this occur from a standing height.

The type of hemorrhage I've described is a subdural hematoma. It can be evacuated by a neurosurgeon (but the effects of the anticoagulation must be reversed first). Unfortunately, what I've seen happen many times is that the subdural hematoma compresses the underlying brain tissue causing injury. Then, once the subdural hematoma is evacuated the underlying brain tissue re-expands but hemorrhages as well. A lot of patients don't survive the secondary injury.

I met Jack Goaslind as a missionary conference in South Dakota in 1980. I thought he was a nice guy, too.