Dear Family and Friends,

As many of you know Kerry has been sick for some time. His Parkinson's disease had progressed to debilitating levels. He lived with severe chronic back pain that required emergent surgery approximately 8 years ago - this was the downstream result of a helicopter crash in Vietnam. Most recently, over the past two years he had multiple admissions for cellulitis (significant superficial skin infection) resulting in bacterial spread to his blood and admission to the ICU for sepsis. He was fortunate to survive these significant medical events, but each time he was further weakened and never made complete recoveries. Additionally, over the last 3 to 4 years he had multiple pre cancerous lesions removed from his throat. He attempted to quit smoking on multiple occasions but it didn't take. Several months ago he was diagnosed with a small focus of throat cancer without any imaging or physiological evidence of spread. At the recommendation of his physician and his family, he tried to quit smoking once more and underwent radiation therapy for his throat cancer. He did not tolerate the radiation. He had a great deal of swelling that resulted in eating and breathing complications. He was in the hospital in early June with aspiration (where oral secretions and food, etc.. go down the trachea and into your lungs instead of down the esophagus and into your stomach) pneumonia. He was discharged from the hospital in late June and follow-up appointments showed persistent throat swelling and ongoing aspiration, etc.. About two weeks ago he decided that he had enough. He decided that he was going to eat what he wanted with the full knowledge that a significant amount would go into his lungs resulting in pneumonia and death. Simultaneously he decided to go into hospice/end of life care.

The last two weeks he was fortunate enough to be surrounded by family and loved ones. He did not suffer and was made comfortable. He expressed to me on multiple occasions that he was grateful for the wonderful life he had and that he was at peace. He passed away at 4:00 am today (Friday July 31st). Thank you all for the wonderful part you played in Kerry's life. I know he was grateful.

Thank you all for your love, support, friendship, and prayers.

Best wishes,
Chris

Christopher M. Massari, M.D.
Kerry's Son
cmassari@mac.com