Vestring home after long bout with illness
Bob Vestring, Burns rancher, has returned home after spending almost four months hospitalized with flu and pneumonia.
The 83-year-old man hovered between life and death for three weeks in an intensive care unit at Wesley Medical Center.
He spent several more months recuperating in a regular room and underwent rehabilitation for three weeks to restore swallowing capacity.
He can eat soft food now, but continues to receive feedings through a tube in his stomach.
The slim rancher lost 21 pounds during his ordeal. He has gained about half of them back.
The whole experience has made him upset because five weeks before he got sick, he took a flu shot and a pneumonia shot.
"This is the first time in my life that I had pneumonia," he said.
He is happy to be alive and back with his wife, Nadine.
"I am so thankful for all the cards and prayers," he said. "When I think about it, it almost makes me cry."
He said several priests visited and offered their blessings while he was in intensive care and unaware of their presence. Catholic churches in El Dorado and Florence had special prayers for him.
The Methodist and Mennonite churches at Burns prayed for him, as well. An Episcopalian friend from Texas engaged his church in prayers for Vestring.
"Those prayers are probably what helped pull me through this," he said.
He lost two close friends while in intensive care.
"Doctors tell me if I hadn't had a strong heart, I would have never made it," he said.
The tough cowboy has begun going out to the ranch headquarters south of Cassoday and riding around with his two sons. He is getting stronger every day and once again is enjoying the life he loves.
