Sri Krishanamchari

[Guest guest]

namaskaram.

 

It is overwhelming to read all the postings and emails on Sri Krishnamachari.

 

It was my misfortune that took him away from us all. But, he is going to a

better place with eternal bliss; no more heart problems, no more neuropathies,

no more trigeminal neuralgias, no more attack of parkinson’s, no more

blapherospasms in the eyes, no more worry about medicine for the one affecting

the other. How much can a body take?

 

On Thursday, December 9 (kaisika ekadasi day), Sri Krishnamachari was returning

from work in a bus to catch the train to come home; he had forgotten to take his

cell phone with him that day; he would have normally called from work before he

left; but, he didn’t. In the bus, he is said to have had an erythma attack

and fallen down; there is no account of how long he was down; some nurses who

were traveling in the bus found him and tried to revive him and called the

ambulance; by the time he was admitted in the emergency, it was 20 minutes and

he had 2 more erythma attacks. For another 40 minutes or so, they could not get

his pulse. When our daughter held his hand and told him that she was there and

amma is coming, his pulse came back, which surprised all the doctors there. I

arrived at the spot much later. Our son arrived from LA the next morning. Our

close family members arrived also.

 

Prognosis was – his brain and organs had no oxygen for more than an hour and

got damaged. He had seizures that night; even after 48 hours, he did not wake up

and reflexes were not back. Four different medications were pumping his heart,

ventilator was breathing for him. Kidney failed. Everything else started going

downhill. I was asked make the toughest decision in life – when to pull the

life support out (when I hesitated, the argument given to me by doctors was –

don’t think you are killing him; he could have died in the bus). Didn’t

want to lose him right way; so, I went with ‘don’t pull the life support,

but you do not have to give any new treatments like dialysis etc; let nature

take its course’. His heart started beating on his own; so all medicines were

withdrawn. Another 2 days, another pressure – can we pull the ventilator out?

Since kidney was getting worse and worse, I had to go with ‘ do not pull the

tube from his

mouth; just shut the ventilator’. On Thursday, 12/17, around 3 pm, the

ventilator was slowed down gradually and when it was totally shut off, he

started breathing on his own; his pulse rate was sound. We were told that the

duration will be unpredictable; so, we watched him like a hawk during that

night; around midnight, his BP started going down, and around 4:15 am (12/18),

he breathed his last, passed peacefully and attained our Acaryan’s tiruvaDi.

 

Was he waiting for his family to come and see him? Was he waiting for all his

brothers’ kids and my sisters’ kids and all the Chicago friends to come and

see him? Was he waiting for me to come to terms with life, become ready to let

him go? May be. All I am proud of is, as much as I could, I pulled my strength

and chanted dvayam in his ears almost all the time, especially during his last

hours. I want to believe that he was not dead in the bus; he died peacefully

with his family around and with dvayam ringing his ears.

 

Our family would like to thank one and all, grieving with us this moment; it

means a lot to us and is very consoling.

 

He had at least one wish that did not get fulfilled; he wanted to get his Vishnu

sahasranamam published as a regular book; my son and I will try to collect all

his materials from his laptop and see what we can do to accomplish that.

 

I am ending with this – who is going to call me every second for misplaced

eyeglasses? Who is going to call me to tell me – you left the ‘h’ in

Satrughna, check this dictionary, that dictionary, go get the other references

and provide reference numbers for all slokams? Who am I going to argue with –

no, acaryan said only my way, not your way; why are you nitpicking on everything

I write? Who is going to edit my acarya ramamrtam books with eyes affected by

blapherospasm? Who am I going to say – get off the PC and go take a bath? Who

is going to tell me – don’t run away to watch TV; you have to give more when

you write; you cannot just translate into English without putting life into it?

 

We are going to do the 9th thru 13th ceremonies in Kumbakonam; this is what he

would have liked also - to reach the astral plane from his home town where his 2

brothers are.

 

Warm regards,

SrImad ANDavan tiruvaDi,

Kalyani Krishnamachari (very blessed to have a fine family and lots and lots of

friends)