Prayer for Chris Klicka
Author: Jessie
•Monday, September 28, 2009


A man who has changed lives and served Christ with his all!
Chris Klicka

Chris has had chronic progressive declining Multiple Sclerosis (MS) for 15 years now. Every one we know who has this rarer type of MS lives about only eight years from the time of diagnosis, so we are especially grateful he has been able to continue to work full-time for HSLDA and be a faithful husband and father to 7 children.

Despite all the concentrated endeavors we've made using many therapies, diets, and supplements, last December Chris was in a car accident from a hit-and-run driver while driving by himself and his car was totaled. While God was merciful in that Chris had no concussion or serious physical injury, the trauma to his brain was enough to cause an increase of current and addition of new symptoms, including:

  • visual problems
  • hearing loss
  • loss of taste
  • loss of movement
  • loss of his right arm (on & off)
  • sleep problems
  • incontinence & bowel problems
  • growing loss of his left hand
  • tremendous difficulty walking & often standing
  • needing assistance for most everything now
  • growing joint pains & sores over his body
Most of these problems are new since the accident and a failed attempt to stop the progression of the MS with a heavy dose of prednisone in March.

Because of the pretty rapid progression of the MS from March until now, Chris pursued a 3-wk. clinical treatment of hyperbaric oxygen therapy at Miracle Mountain Children's HBOT Center in Creston, NC.


That period of treatment didn't produce any discernable benefit to Chris, and his symptoms continued to progress.

We kept trying to keep Chris' symptoms stable, but the hypothermia continued to bring his already low baseline temperature down.

With one last trip Chris wanted to make, Chris took a dramatic turn for the worse, and has now only a very little time left with us.

We thank the Lord for His grace & mercy, His sustaining power, and His provision of help from friends and family through these past several months.

Even as God has chosen not to heal Chris in this life, we know He is good! Our sins deserve only His righteous wrath, for which He himself paid the penalty by sending His son to die for us! There isn't anything greater the Lord could give us than His redeeming love and pardon for our transgressions!

All glory to His name!


- Update -
1. Vital signs are and have been stable for over 12 hours now. We are esp. thankful his blood pressure is up. It was critically low. His temperature which was at a life-threatening 85.8 got up to 96.6, which, while not life threatening, is completely debilitating for someone like Chris with MS. It was around 91 when we left last night which is much better for him.

2. Chris has two infections, both of which, combined with the MS, have put him into a status of critically ill. First, is a urinary tract infection. This has responded well as of last night to antibiotics. Thank the Lord! Two, he has pneumonia. While it is not a severe case for normal healthy people, it is very serious for Chris.

3. He had to be on oxygen 20% midday, but as the afternoon progressed, they continued to up that to 100% and finally had to resort to using a bipap machine, which is a mask that forms a seal on the nose/mouth area and pumps oxygen into the lungs. By last night, his oxygen levels had come up, and held steady so that they could remove the bipap machine.

He came very close to having to be put on a ventilator if the bipap machine failed to get his oxygen levels up. This is a serious step to take, and not one to make lightly. We are thankful the doctors did not have to do that.

Concerning interventive measures, Chris and I talked quite a bit in the last two months about what he would like to have done and what he would not want done should the need arise to visit this issue. Chris, who was never one to want a lot of medical intervention, decided that he did not want to be artificially prolonged.

If the doctors had told us they needed to put him on a ventilator, even though Chris said he did not want to, I would have asked them to do it, but only so that our children could be with their daddy before he goes home to be with the Lord.

Chris is close to going home we believe. He is fairly unconscious, non-responsive and has had no nutrition since Thursday except hydration and electrolyte and glucose supplementation.

He is not stable or responsive enough to move from the ICU unit here at St. Francis Medical Center in Colorado Springs. With almost complete certainty, he will not be coming home to Virginia.

Because of this, we flew Bethany, Megan, and John out here to be with their daddy. Chris parents just flew in early this morning. In addition, our family life pastor is flying in today at noon.

We don't know how much time we have left with Chris, but we believe it is not long. As a family, we all knew that Daddy was getting worse; we just didn't expect him to be getting ready to go home to be with his Abba Father quite this soon. We are all at peace with whatever God has planned, knowing that because He is there, it is all good.

Thank you for your prayers as we prepare and spend our last days and hours with Chris. May they be filled with many precious moments and sweet fellowship with him!
The Klicka Family
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