On April 10th, 2009, Keith was in Austin, TX for his future brother-in-law’s bachelor party. Apparently around 12:30, Keith left a downtown Austin bar alone. He walked a couple of blocks and entered a multi-level parking garage. Surveillance video has Keith entering the garage and riding the elevator up around 12:55 am. Another surveillance video captures him on the 7th floor sitting on a perimeter 4-foot tall wall, leaning against a concrete support column. He fell asleep while straddling the wall and sat there for approximately 1 hour. At around 2:30 am he apparently lost his balance and fell to the ground below. He hit a couple of 2”-3” diameter branches of a tree and landed about a foot or two from the building. He miraculously landed in some of the only grassy ground cover in an area that is surrounded by concrete. A pedestrian who was walking by happened to see a person falling and was able to call 9-1-1 immediately. Paramedics were on the scene quickly and transported him a couple of blocks to the hospital. This particular hospital is the leading trauma center in Central Texas. He underwent surgery to relieve the pressure and bleeding of the brain early that morning and remained in ICU for several months. After three weeks in Austin he was able to be transferred to Baylor Medical Center in downtown Dallas from May until later that fall.
He suffered congestive heart failure in July of 2009 and the family was told once again that Keith would not make it, in fact, there was a good chance he would not make it through the night. But he did and was once again stable enough to be transferred out of the hospital and into a nursing home. Due to chronic infection he was in and out of hospitals for approximately sixteen months before the Lord graciously called him Home on August 28th, 2010.
Mark and Mariana:
On March 14th, 2010, Mark finished Sunday’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Half Marathon in Dallas in 1:47:39 — then suddenly collapsed and later was pronounced dead at Baylor Hospital in Dallas. It was shocking and devastating. Mark was, by all accounts, the picture of health. A former college and semi-pro baseball player, he held the course record at his local country club. He was the last person anyone would ever expect to die this way — a poignant reminder that none of us knows God’s appointed time to call us home.
The cause of Mark's death, myocarditis, is an inflammation of the heart muscle caused by common viruses. We remember Mark being sick several weeks before the race, but he recovered, felt fine and resumed training thinking nothing more of it. Doctors believe the virus caused the myocarditis, which led to his death. "Myocarditis is almost always caused by a virus that runs its course," said Dr. Peter Wells, a cardiologist with the Baylor Hamilton Heart and Vascular Hospital. Wells added that doctors don't understand why "1 percent of the people with the same virus get myocarditis, and 99 percent don't."
He was a devoted husband and father. He never deviated from that devotion.
He was a devoted husband and father. He never deviated from that devotion.
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