Dunagan died in his sleep final October
New particulars emerged this week relating to the surprising dying of a Presbyterian pastor in Texas who died final October on the age of 44.
Bryan Dunagan, who served for a decade as senior pastor of the 5,500-member Highland Park Presbyterian Church in Dallas, died in his sleep within the early morning hours of Oct. 26, in response to a public assertion from the church on the time.
Dr. Robert J. Burke, an anesthesiologist who additionally serves as an elder within the church, issued an announcement Tuesday explaining that Dunagan died because of mixing alcohol with therapeutic doses of anti-anxiety treatment and ache treatment.
“After an post-mortem and subsequent cautious evaluation of the report by a board licensed toxicologist and one other forensic knowledgeable, it seems that the mix of alcohol and two generally prescribed drugs of their regular therapeutic quantities resulted in a very surprising and unintended cardiac and/or pulmonary occasion/response,” Burke wrote.
In an announcement, Burke defined that whereas Dunagan was a collegiate athlete at Stanford College, he suffered a knee damage that led to ache for which he was prescribed the opioid Tramadol.
On the day he died, Dunagan went for a run and took Tramadol to deal with ache in his knee, Burke mentioned.
Dunagan was additionally prescribed a low dose of sertraline, an SSRI generally often called Zoloft, to deal with anxiousness. Burke famous that “Bryan typically referred to—and even preached about—his anxiousness.”
“The night earlier than his dying, Bryan hosted the household at his house for dinner and drinks,” Burke continued. “Early the subsequent morning, Bryan was discovered unresponsive in his house.
An post-mortem report obtained by the Dallas Morning Information indicated that the medical expert dominated Dunagan's dying an accident and attributed it to “blended drug toxicity involving ethanol, tramadol and sertraline.”
Burke emphasised that the findings “don’t indicate that there was drug or alcohol abuse or overdose or something improper or inappropriate.”
“For unexplained causes, Bryan's in any other case wholesome physique reacted in a shocking, sudden and irregular method, leading to his dying,” he added.
Dunagan is survived by his three youngsters and his spouse, Ali, who additionally addressed the medical findings in a latest e-mail to the congregation of Highland Park Presbyterian Church.
“We have now all been warned about attainable unwanted side effects and drug interactions. Sadly, Bryan is within the small statistic of individuals for whom these interactions have been deadly,” she wrote.
Ali additionally talked about how her husband struggled with anxiousness and recorded a sermon he gave when he “described his personal battle with being caught when he first took a job and got here to Highland Park Pres.”
She mentioned that for her husband, the treatment “mixed with accountability and counseling led to his robust psychological health and tenacious pleasure.”
She additionally famous how she was nonetheless recovering from her husband's dying and attempting to come back to phrases with it, however that she was counting on God's faithfulness.
“I've needed to undergo one other trauma these previous few weeks as I'm tempted to ask God, 'Why?'” she wrote. “I’ve spoken to numerous docs who’re additionally baffled as to how therapeutic ranges of generally pharmaceuticals may work together in such a method.”
“Nevertheless, I maintain coming again to Him strolling by means of the uncertainty with us. God was with Bryan in his tragic dying and He’s with us as we grieve,” she added.
Throughout her husband's memorial service final fall, Ali performed a clip from one in every of her husband's sermons during which he taught that whereas God typically doesn't reply the query of why good folks undergo or why there’s a lot evil and ache on the planet, he does supply to undergo with them.
“We ask God 'Why?' and His reply is 'S,'” Dunagan preached. “He offers us a brand new phrase: s. 'I’m with you on this storm, in your ache.' I'll by no means depart you, by no means depart you I'll be with you.'”
Dunagan mentioned even Jesus on the cross requested God, “Why?”
“Do you see that God takes our struggling so significantly that he was keen to take it upon himself in order that we will say with Karl Barth that 'God would fairly be the struggling God of a struggling folks than the blessed God of an unblessed folks? ' And that's excellent news for these of us dealing with the storm,” he mentioned.
Jon Brown is a reporter for The Christian Publish. Ship information tricks to jon.brown@christianpost.com
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