He was 27. Although he died from complications of a physical illness, he suffered from mental illness that signifcantly impaired his life. Which is why I am posting this. Mental illness was not only devastating to him, but it subjected my wife and I to nearly eight years of chaos, stress, and fear. For example, the night he aborted an attempt at suicide, and woke us up to say we needed to take him to the hospital. He was standing in our bedroom doorway, blood dripping from his neck, arms, and wrists. His mother looked up and fainted. We often felt like we were on our in dealing with him, and that people would hardly believe what we were going through.
Our son is in a better place now and no longer suffering, but as we have seen with highly publicized shooting incidents, mental illness is a significant problem. Below is a page where donations to mental health research can be made in my son's memory.
