Steve Bender could be home by week’s end

David. F. Rooney

Councillor Steve Bender, who was hospitalized in Vancouver last week after he experienced serious internal bleeding, could be back home in Revelstoke by the end of the week.

His wife, Adelheid, said “his vital signs are good” and doctors at Vancouver General Hospital have resumed his blood thinner treatments. He started taking Warfarin after heart surgery in 2010. The blood thinners were suspended after he collapsed last week.

“He doesn’t have cancer, he has a kidney condition where scar tissue forms on the kidneys that cause them not to work properly,” Adelheid said.

“His kidneys are about 20% working, but he doesn’t have to go on dialysis at this time.

“He must be getting better he is starting to get grumpy.”

Maybe if everything goes well we can take him back to Revelstoke at the end of next week.”

Her husband’s ordeal began Jan 5, when he underwent a kidney biopsy at Royal Inland Hospital.  He was sent home on January 7 and January 14 he experienced abdominal pain and severe vomiting. That night he was taken to  Queen Victoria Hospital where they diagnosed internal bleeding from the kidney and measured his blood pressure at 70/35 — far, far below normal.

Steve was then transported to Royal Inland Hospital in Kamloops and from there to Vancouver General by air ambulance at which point he was sent to surgery.  He had only 20% function in his kidneys and he lapsed into a coma and was attached to a ventilator. He was then sent to the Intensive Care Unit.

“By the end of that day — Monday — he was breathing on his own,” Adelheid said in an interview from Vancouver last week. “His hands and feet are very swollen and his stomach is hugely swollen.