Glenn Buczkowski, PA-C, choked up while discussing the heart-wrenching decision in December 2011 to remove his father, Norm, from life support. Norm’s lungs were failing from the effects of radiation treatment for cancer caused by four decades of smoking.
Buczkowski, a PA in general surgery and vascular surgery in Buffalo, New York, held a proxy to make such healthcare decisions. Family members gathered around Norm’s hospital bed had weighed in. Now, they looked toward Buczkowski.
“I couldn’t say, ‘We should stop [life support],’” he recalled in a recent video conversation with AAPA. He paused and wiped a tear.
“I said, ‘He wouldn’t want to be kept on a ventilator.’”
So it was done. Norm passed away moments later at age 73.
His legacy and those of other cancer victims will be evoked beginning on Nov. 14, the start of a marathon, 11-day hockey game at the Buffalo RiverWorks outdoor rink between two teams of 20 players each bidding for inclusion in the annals of the Guinness World Records.
The event, now in its fifth year and dubbed 11-Day Power Play, has raised $6 million to benefit the cancer hospital where Norm was treated and related charities. As of Nov. 9, more than $1,650,000 has been raised in the 2021 campaign toward a goal of $2 million, said the event’s cofounder, Amy Lesakowski, a breast cancer survivor whose mother-in-law died of lung cancer.
“During the pandemic, these charities need us now more than ever, and we hope we can bring this support to them,” she said.
PA Glenn Buczkowski memorializes his father, a cancer victim, on his hockey helmet. (Photo: Courtesy Glenn Buczkowski)