The Torkel Saga 2059: How my Dad “Jerry” Died and Lived VTorkel

Blog – The Torkel Saga and HealthMan

Published – November 1, 2026

Title – How my Dad “Jerry” Died and Lived

George Gerald Torkelson - CPO

Contents

Findings before Reading Death Certificate
Final Three Days
Friday at The Pulmonary Surgeon’s Office
Need For Oxygen
Steroids
Surgery to Remove His Pericardium
Diminished Appetite
The Year Earlier Loss of Strength
Exposure to Second Hand Smoke
Smoking
History of Exposure with Asbestos
Carrying Disease & Toxins
Active Aerobic Youth
Born In 1922
Willed Body Program
1993 – Our Dad - My “god” = electric light
Prose
How my dad lived: A picture show

Findings before Reading Death Certificate

August 23, 2005 - I believe today would be my mother’s, June Elizabeth Stoutenburg-Torkelson, birthday. Based upon what my father reported to me during his yearlong illness, my father died of suffocation. He suffocated because he no longer could clear the thickened mucous from his lungs. The doctor said the mucous was thickened due to dehydration. I say that he no longer had the inter-costal and diaphragmatic muscle tone to generate a forceful sweeping action cough or a huff. From progressive reports from his doctor I concluded that he had excess fibrosis in the thoracic cavity not just lungs. Earlier in the year he had surgery to remove his now inelastic pericardium (constrictive pericarditis).

Final Three Days

Throughout my father’s life I remember him regularly doing huffs to clear his lungs. Two days before he died he told me that he was unable to mechanize any clearing. I took note yet did not see that this was the beginning of a fatal sequelae or downturn. Some talk of drowning with regards to processes such as pneumonia. In a manner my dad’s pulmonary respiration impacted with thick mucus.

Friday at The Pulmonary Surgeon’s Office

On the Friday before his death my sister, Christine, and I accompanied my father to the pulmonary surgeon’s office in Orange California. He showed us another major problem; my father had a huge, over three inches in diameter, tumor in one lobe of his lungs. The doctor told us that if he operated and tubed him for general anesthesia he would never be able to remove the tube again. In less than gruesome language we got the message over to my father that the situation had worsened and had become untreatable. I believe that it was at this point my father spiritually began to leave this life. After the doctor we met my brother Kevin and his wife Aurora at the Black Angus for dinner. I took a picture of my father. In the photograph I notice later that his eyes are glassy and afar as if he was not here at all. It was nice to notice that my dad had a glass of wine.

Need For Oxygen

The pericardial removal surgery was intended to give him back some strength. The surgery failed to do so. I believed that his lack of stamina and strength were due to low aortic oxygen partial pressure. Even though his respiratory specialist did not agree he gave him an oxygen prescription anyway. The oxygen may or may not have helped my father to feel more comfortable. It is rather expensive to have oxygen at home.

Steroids

The doctor was reserved to give my father any cortical-steroids because they are not long-term solution. Yet I discussed with him how I really do not think the long-term is an issue. My father told me that he had a few better days after taking the cortical steroids.

At Respiratory Specialists

At the respiratory specialists my father was asked to perform some typical respiratory performance and integrity tests. I remember my father trying so hard to the point of near unconsciousness doing the total lung volume assay. At this point I told the doctor that it is obvious my father could not pass the assay and this testing was just causing him suffering and hardship. At this point the respiratory specialist not only discontinued follow up testing he granted my father a handicap status.

Surgery to Remove His Pericardium

When my father’s doctors concluded that he had a damaged pericardium we temporarily believed that this might be the problem causing his lack of stamina. The surgeon removed his pericardium and completely overlooked the probable tumor in his lung. This surgeon did little or nothing to help with my father’s stamina problem.

Diminished Appetite

My father fell ill in one day, just over a year before he died. Soon after falling ill he lost his appetite. The lack of nutrition after a few months he began wasting. I assume that this general wasting affected his muscle tone. The muscles that lost the ability to function adequately were his intercostal and diaphragmatic muscles. As I later thought that due to the thoracic fibrosis he could not expand about the chest yet he also had little ability to expand into his abdomen. I believe this muscle wasting issue was progressive and integral to his ultimate suffocation.

The Year Earlier Loss of Strength

One day my dad came to my apartment in Laguna Niguel with my mother and cousin, Edward Stoutenburg. My parents had bought me two pieces of unassembled furniture. My dad said that just that day he was sick and could not muster any strength, that he could not help me carry the 100 plus pound boxes. It was as if something acute had changed in one day. I have no idea was system could be challenged in one day and then become progressively worse.

Exposure to Second Hand Smoke

In my parent’s household the whole of the time that I grew up my mother smoked cigarettes. This second hand smoke could only complicate any pre-existing condition in my father thoracic cavity. I haven’t read yet the pathology and progression of chronic long term second hand smoke exposure.

Smoking

When I was a child my father smoked cigars. I remember him telling me on numerous occasions that I couldn’t remember because he quit before I was born. Yet I remember clearly him saving and giving the cigar bands to Candace, my sister, so she could redeem some sort of gift with the bands. The point is smoking could have aggravated a pre-existing thoracic challenge or be a primary trigger for excess thoracic fibrosis.

History of Enclosure with Asbestos

My father worked for two years in the bowels of the battleship Colorado from 1943-1945 during World War Two. I am not certain yet it is very likely that there was asbestos within the ship. My father's ship was hit many times at Tinian by Japanese shelling. I also believe that one or more kamikaze planes hit the ship. Huge impact shakes materials in the ship loose and cause fire. It seems possible that my father had a history of asbestos exposure. In his later life he had a history of chemical exposure both at work as a machinist and at home.

Carrying Disease & Toxins

Possible Corynebacterium tuberculosis Exposure

My father grew up during the depression, a time when the TB prevalence in the United States was greater. The respiratory specialist that he saw in 1998-99 could not rule out a history of TB. An early TB challenge could lead to some lung damage.

Active Aerobic Youth

On the other side my father indicated to me on several occasions that he was rather physically fit while growing up. He mentioned some very strenuous jobs such as laying railroad track as he grew up. Yet he never mentioned any aerobic events or exercise. I think that his development favored health rather that work against him in his ultimate pulmonary fatal crisis.

Born In 1922

August 23, 2005 - Born in 1922 in Minnesota my dad saw and experienced one of the biggest changes in World History. He survived birthing, the great-depression, prohibition, hard labor, Naval World War Two, migration from Minnesota to California for a better job, economic boom, having 9 kids, giving three kids away, conflict with his wife, conflict with his boys, social issues of the 70s as they infected his home, etc. In the last month of his life with his wife now deceased for a year my father told me he was going to his Battleship (BB45) reunion in Texas. I felt that he would die at some point away and told him to not go to Texas. He didn’t go. My father died while in his sleep period. I know from myself that the suffocating event probably woke him up. My sister says his eyes were open. I almost did not go to see him before he was taken away. I went and had my last goodbye to George my dad. I cried and gave him a kiss on the forehead. Unlike my mother he was already cold. I went to the foot of his bed and massaged his stiffened feet.

Willed Body Program

My father donated his body to the University of California, Irvine’s willed body program. My sister got his ashes back a couple years later. He had been used to teach future doctors that he would have been very happy to know. During his anatomical dissection not one report came back about his unique thoracic pathologies. I remember in veterinary school that we were to bring attention to the instructors any abnormalities so the whole of the lab section could make note. Though I would not have wished to participate in the whole of my father’s dissection I think back that the lab on the mediastinum and thorax would have been rewarding. My father as of today lays to rest not next to my mother, yet in his old safe, probably in a closet at my sister Christine’s house in Huntington Beach California. She tells me that she knows what he wanted and that was to do with him whatever he wished. I personally wish that part of him were with my mother in Riverside California and another part spread on the Pacific Ocean that he may re-enter the food chain resume a part of life in an act nearly divine, just, and right.