Document 937vNkKDGkEDoeRV22vRGyz7e

1 increases in size, presses on the diaphragm and the Page 184 2 person can't breathe because the diaphragm can't come 3 back down, so that individual becomes short of 4 breath. 5 7,000 ccs or another 1.84 gallons. 11,000 6 ccs in June removed within a month. 7 Within another month, another 9,000 ccs. 8 By August, he was suffering from massive 9 ascites. There was nothing they could do to prevent 10 the accumulation of that fluid. He had another mini 11 laparotomy in August where 13,000 ccs were removed. 12 Mr. Vandergucht's ascites became so bad, so 13 uncontrollable, so untreatable that in September he 14 had something called a LeVeen shunt. 15 He went to Johns Hopkins Hospital and they 16 inserted a shunt, a valve was inserted in his stomach, 17 in his abdominal cavity that ran up to his external 18 jugular vein that would automatically click on so that 19 this acidic fluid could be diuresed back through the 20 blood system and expelled from the body. 21 That was the only way because he was