What A Way To Die

Watching Missouri Game Was Last Wish For Lifelong Husker Fan This amazing story is true. A lifelong Husker football fan woke up from a six-day coma last Wednesday in Lincoln and announced that his one last wish was to watch Nebraska beat Missouri Thursday night in Columbia. Hours after making that announcement, he went back into a comatose state, only to wake up on Thursday and fulfill his dream. Rex Plock, 89, died late Sunday morning at Lincoln's Madonna Rehabilitation Hospital, where one of his daughters is a registered nurse. Ironically, she specializes in caring for patients in the same condition as her father, who spent seven of the last 10 days of his life on a ventilator. Deb Kapperman, the R.N. and one of Plock's two daughters, and Jim Miller, the pastor at his church, have seen a lot of cases like his, but can't remember anyone who was so determined to make his last wish come true. Plock, you see, had been so deep in a coma for six straight days that no one, not his doctors, his caretakers or his family, expected him to wake up. But when he did last Wednesday, he made it perfectly clear that he wanted to see, or at least listen to, Thursday night's game, even if it killed him. Against all odds, Plock watched the game in his room at Lincoln's Bryan East Hospital after he'd come out of that second comatose state. Before going back into it, he spelled out what he wanted if his eyes could not open - a radio right next to his ear, tuned into the game. "He wasn't leaving without watching or listening to that last game," Kapperman said, choking back a tear, even though she is confident that her dad was at peace with his life, his family, and yes, the football team that he has followed so fervently for so long . . . his beloved Nebraska Cornhuskers. You need to understand how extraordinary Rex Plock was - as a man and as a fan. Other than the life machines this is exactly how I want go I can't think of a better way.