by I just read that Kevin O’Brien – Hognose – of the WeaponsMan blog has passed away this morning. I saw a post by Tom Kratman and then read the full post on the blog.
His brother Brendan posted this (in part) on the blog:
Kevin and I really became close friends after our childhood. We saw each other just about every day after he moved to a house just two miles away from mine. In the winter of 2015, we began building our airplane together. You could not ask for a better building partner.
Last Thursday night was our last “normal” night working on the airplane. I could not join him Friday night, but on Saturday morning I got a call from the Portsmouth Regional Hospital. He had called 911 on Friday afternoon and was taken to the ER with what turned out to be a massive heart attack. Evidently he was conscious when he was brought in, but his heart stopped and he was revived after 60 minutes of CPR. He never reawakened.
On Saturday, he was transported to Brigham and Women’s where the medical staff made absolutely heroic efforts to save his life. Our dad came up on Sunday and we visited him Sunday, Monday, and today. Each day his condition became worse.
As of last night, it was obvious to everyone that he had almost no chance of survival; and that if he did by some chance survive, he would have no quality of life. Kevin’s heart was damaged beyond repair, his kidneys were not functioning, he had not regained consciousness, and he had internal bleeding that could not be stopped. We made the decision this morning to terminate life support.
I enjoyed the WeaponsMan blog because it was informative, educational, and well written regardless of the subject of the post. Hognose did superlative reporting on the Colt bankruptcy among other things. Hognose aka Kevin O’Brien brought a new vitality to blogging and he will be missed.