The Hancock-Henderson Quill, Inc.
By David Grimes, The Quill
At 58, Darrell Kraft has a deeper appreciation of the things that truly matter in life.
Today, he serves part-time as industrial arts coordinator at Dallas City Great River Community Center. He can tell you the names and personality types of his several students he teaches in two daytime classes he conducts as well as an adult education class one night a week.
"They're more like family than students," he says.
But Darrell Kraft couldn't tell you one thing about what was going on a year ago.
"I had never been sick before then, other than the occasional cold or flu," says this man whose love of people is as robust as his physical presence.
January 31, 2003, is the last day Kraft can recall prior to his lapsing into a coma, the result of complications from pneumonia, sometime during the days that followed.
"I guess I had pneumonia and didn't realize it," he says.
But others weren't as blind to Kraft's condition. Friends had even commented on his health.
Kraft worked at General Electric and J.I. Case prior to his retirement in 2002 and had served in the National Guard until 1999.
He is a racing enthusiast as well, having raced in his younger days-mainly late models and sprints, he said-and is serving as current president of the Black Hawk Auto Restorers Club. He was an active man, but two months before his January 31 collapse, Kraft noticed he became short of breath after walking short distances.
"I thought it was because I wasn't working like I used to do and because I no longer needed to stay in shape like I did while I was in the Guard," he recalls.
The root of Kraft's illness was an abcess on his lung that had formed during his bout with pneumonia.
When his wife, Connie, took him to the emergency room at Great River Medical Center the morning of February 4, Darrell was already lapsing into a coma. Later in the day, he was transported by ambulance to University Hospitals in Iowa City, IA, where he was put on a ventilator to help him breathe, and five drainage tubes inserted to drain the infection in his body and put on dialysis as his kidneys began to shut down.
"His situation worsened until the only organ in his body that was still functioning was his heart. He's always had a strong heart," Connie Kraft said.
Until the day he was dismissed from the hospital, she never left his side.
The dialysis was necessary because his blood had become poisoned from the infection and was pumping through his vital organs, said his wife, who is an R.N. and worked in the emergency room at GRMC at the time.
"They tell me that during surgery they drained three liters of fluid from the abcess," Darrell Kraft says.
During a second surgery, a blood clot resulting from the dialysis was removed from the lung as well.
Doctors and medical personnel told Kraft's family not to expect any good news in the near future, but remained optimistic about a long-term recovery for him.
Because of her background, Connie Kraft had seen others in her husband's condition and knew the prognosis for most was not positive.
"I thought I was going to be coming home alone," she says.
After remaining in a coma for most of February, Kraft awoke to the surprise of family, friends and his medical team the first week of March.
He was removed from life support as he began to breathe on his own once again.
Six weeks of regular check-ups followed and time spent in rehabilitation in order to regain his strength and flexibility.
He continues to experience short-term memory loss, but estimates he has regained 95 percent of his former strength and faculties.
Kraft's physician, Doug Peters, released him from care last summer.
Best of all, Kraft returned to his position with GRCC as industrial arts coordinator in late December.
"His doctor told him the chances of someone surviving this were about 1 in 10,000," Connie Kraft says.
Darrell Kraft is not likely to dispute those figures.
"My doctor said there was no explanation for me pulling through that, outside of it being a miracle," Kraft said. "And I really believe it was a miracle God performed through the care I received from the medical team and my wife."