Alex Pretti impacted the research that saved Dan Goedken’s life, the veteran told CNN’s Sara Sidner. Dan’s wife, Karen, made the connection while reading about Pretti after he was shot and killed by ICE agents on Saturday.
“I’m still kind of in shock that there’s such a connection for us in terms of community,” Karen told Sidner. “We really have to understand that we all impact each other, and sometimes we never know how we’ve impacted each other. And that’s such an important lesson for the world.”
Exposure to Agent Orange in Vietnam left Dan with a weakened immune system. About two months ago, Karen, a former nurse, noticed Dan was incoherent. The Minneapolis VA Medical Center diagnosed him with sepsis, a potentially fatal condition in which the body struggles to fight off infection.
Pretti worked as an ICU nurse treating sick veterans at the Minneapolis VA Medical Center, according to family, friends and colleagues. Karen said Pretti’s research on Strep C was “instrumental” to Dan’s treatment and recovery.
The clinicians who saved him were mostly “strangers to me, much like Alex Pretti,” Dan said. “But that’s the way life is. Sometimes it’s the help of strangers that make the most amount of difference in our life.”
When Sidner asked whether the couple came to say goodbye to Pretti, Dan said it was not a goodbye “so much as a continued gratitude for his work” at Minneapolis’ VA and other US medical centers.
“Life goes on, and that legacy is long lasting,” he said.
