LAKELAND – Michelle Sharpe dreaded the moment when her son took his last breath.
When it came earlier this month, she had stepped away from his bedside for mere minutes. She had told him she’d be back, recognizing that he probably didn’t comprehend what she was saying.
And even as she hoped she wouldn’t have to witness his body succumb to the injuries he’d suffered in March 2016, she said she couldn’t imagine not being with him when his life ended.
“He’d had a seizure, and the nurse in me knew that it had lasted too long, but the mom in me wanted to believe he was getting better,” said Sharpe, a licensed practical nurse. “I gave him some morphine, and his breathing settled down, and I told him I would be back to change his catheter.”
She said she stepped out to the front porch of their North Lakeland home and gazed into the trees, finding solace in the brightness of the day and the wind gently nudging the leaves.
“I walked back in and he was gone,” she said. “He had relaxed and died. David knew how hard it would be for me to see him take his last breath. He knew I wouldn’t be able to handle that.”
David N. Bryan slipped away Jan. 3, 667 days after he was hit by a passing motorist while helping to push his friend’s disabled car off State Road 60 at Lewis Griffin Road in Lake Wales. He was 31.
Prosecutors upgraded the criminal charges against Oliver Simons Jr., 38, of Tampa, last week to DUI manslaughter following Bryan’s death. Arrest reports state he had methamphetamine and marijuana in his blood when he struck Bryan shortly before midnight on March 7, 2016. If convicted, Simons faces up to 15 years in prison.
After the collision, trauma doctors at Lakeland Regional Health Medical Center expressed doubt that Bryan would survive the first night, Sharpe said. But he defied those odds and continued to defy them in ensuing days and months. He opened his eyes a few times, but remained trapped in a coma.
After two months, his mother said, they chose to bring him home. There was no rehabilitation, only care for his daily needs.
“He wasn’t functioning at a high enough level to qualify for rehabilitation,” she said.
An avid outdoorsman, Bryan had spent the weekend fishing with friends and was headed back to Lakeland when the crash occurred. In the months before he was hurt, Bryan had finished his training in phlebotomy and was eager to begin working in that field. And he’d become proficient in the martial art of jiu jitsu.
“He was getting his life together,” his mother said. “He had gone through a wild phase, but he was maturing and becoming focused in his life. It was just so sad to see his life cut short, knowing there will be so much we will never see.”
Sharpe continued working as assistant director of nursing at Lake Gibson Village independent and assisted living center in Lakeland while her husband, Mathieu Prud’homme, cared for Bryan after he came home.
“I wanted to give David a chance to fight, and I couldn’t bear the thought of strangers taking care of him,” she said. “It wasn’t easy, but it was the right thing to do.”
Still, he never awoke.
Ten months ago, the family abandoned the repeated hospital stays and brought in hospice. They kept Bryan on a feeding tube and breathing assistance, along with measures to keep him comfortable, but ceased medical treatment for anything more than minor infections.
“I felt like David wanted a chance to fight,” his mother said, “but then it became a question of what he would want. In the end, God is always in control and I know that. But it was the right time to take that step.”
Even as Bryan’s health declined, Simons’ criminal case inched its way through the court system.
Brandon Sharpe said he wants to see justice for his brother’s life, but he holds no animosity for the man charged with causing the injuries that led to his death.
“I know my brother’s life will never be in vain because he touched too many other lives,” said Sharpe, 27, “but I want this guy to be radically changed by what happened. When he goes to heaven, I want him to hug my brother and say, ‘If this hadn’t happened, my life wouldn’t have been changed.’ That would solve every issue in this life and the next.”
Sharpe said he’ll remember his brother as someone who tackled life daily.
“He was a ball of life, for sure,” he said.
Longtime friend Jessica Sheridan of Lakeland said she’ll miss Bryan’s snappy wit and his passion for his Irish heritage.
“He never judged anybody,” she said. “That’s not who he was. He was the kind of person who would protect other people. You could put him in the middle of nowhere, and I’d feel safe with him. I really miss him.”
Suzie Schottelkotte can be reached at suzie.schottelkotte@theledger.com or 863-533-9070. Follow her on Twitter @southpolkscene.