I received the following email from Walters wife Carol Ann, she said that she wanted me to share it with Walters hang gliding family.
From: Carol Ann Davis
Subject: Re: love you both
To: dana
Date: Thursday, November 20, 2008, 9:11 AM
Thank you Dana. The following is a letter you can share with the Sylmar gang who Walter loves.
As many of you may know, my dear husband Walter Briant, has been fighting a rare cancer called multiple myeloma (cancer of the stem cells) for almost 5 years. His doctor in LA, Dr James Berenson, is considered the expert through most of the world.
Recently Walter was hang gliding in Sylmar California where he goes every 3 or 4 months and he had an accident where he was pretty cut up and lost a lot of blood. The accident evidently caused his cancer to go crazy and it is now out of control. On October 23rd we went to California to visit friends and family and to see his doctor. Walter began to bleed internally. He has required multiple blood transfusions and platelets to keep his blood levels up. We spent time in the hospital 4 times in California and the most recent time was in Ceders-Sinai in the Beverly Hills area for 8 days. The doctors could not discover the source nor the reason for the bleeding though they knew it was in the stomach area and outside of the stomach. They finally said that they could do nothing more. I began to make arrangements to get him home to the place he loves, Kauai. He was unable to fly on a commercial plane so with the help of his brother in law, who is VP of Trader Joes, we found a Gulf Stream 4 executive jet which we flew him home on Tuesday (it came complete with oxygen, a nurse and cute blond stewardess and two pilots and a bed made specially for him in the back)
Linda Rozelle, my friend and head nurse at our local hospital, arranged everything for our arrival and he was admitted to Wilcox for the night where he was transfused and given platelets for the final time. The love and care he received at Wilcox was such a contrast to the understaffed impersonal though excellent Cedars facility.
Yesterday day we brought him home to spend what will probably be the last 3 or 4 days in his own bed. Last night friends and family gathered, including his only granddaughter who arrived from Honolulu, and we had a celebration, Walt was up and enjoying every moment of it including drinking a glass of wine which he has not been able to do for a month. He had fun talking windsurfing which was his favorite sport with Ranny and Howie.
I noticed a letter in the paper today from Horace Stossel mentioning the county manager issue which was near and dear to Walter's heart. He worked so hard on it as a charter commission member, even though he often was too tired to walk up and down stairs. I wish that somehow that could be passed and that he might know it might happen.
Love
Carol Ann
A letter from Walter's wife
Moderator: Chip
