David Paul Johnson, a native of Mobile departed this life on Sunday August 16 at a local hospital at 2:59pm. He was 44 yrs. old.

He is survived by his wife and best friend Suzanne Maddox and a beautiful daughter Katelyn Johnson; a devoted Mother Mary Lawson and Step-Dad Frank Evans; Father Herman Paul Johnson, Jr.; Sisters Aimee (and brother-in-law John) Lowery and Patricia Johnson, both of Mobile; nieces Aimee (Little Aime) Finch and Mary (Little Mary) Lowery; nephew (Lil' John) John Lowery, III; Grandmothers Velma Donald and Annie Laurie (Mimi) Browning both of Mobile; Grandfathers preceding him in death were James (Grandpa) M. Donald and Herman (PawPaw) P. Johnson, Sr.; a half-sister Beth Johnson; half-brothers Wesley and Cody Johnson; and Step-Mom Pam Johnson; cousins Jimmy, Miche and Tyre Coon; Aunt Maxine Coon; friend Donna Stacey; cousins Angela, Little Terry and Edward Johnson; Uncle Terry and Aunt Misty; cousins Christy and Ike Johnson; Uncle Dwight and Aunt Linda Johnson; cousins Donna Kay, DJ and Tiffany Johnson; Uncle Donald and Aunt Brenda Johnson; cousins Shannon, Ricky and Darryl Gill; and Aunt Nancy Johnson; cousins Kim and Jeremy Johnson; and Uncle Neal Johnson; and his lifelong friend and dog Floppy and other relatives and countless friends.

Visitation will be at Gilmer's Funeral Home on Ziegler Boulevard Wednesday August 19 between 5 and 8 pm. Funeral services will be held also at Gilmers August 20 at 12 pm with Pastor and lifelong friend Raymond Jones officiating followed immediately by the interment at Pine Crest West.

Pallbearers will be Tyre Coon, Harold Reed, Terry Johnson, Edward Johnson, Wesley Davis and Donald Davis. And Tyre James Coon, John Lowery, III, Shawn Dueitt and David Higgins acting as honorary pallbearers.

David was born in Mobile on July 20, 1965. He had so many friends I wouldn't know where to start to list them all. I just wanted to say the things that I will miss the most are his laugh, the way he could make me laugh and his smile. He never met a stranger, everyone liked him. He never held a grudge against anyone. He lived his life to the fullest everyday. When he started getting sick, he never complained. He loved his wife of 20+ years more than life itself. He had a beautiful daughter Katelyn Johnson, 19 years old and just starting college. They were both the light of his world. David lived in Mobile for most of his life until 1995 when he and his wife moved to Chicago. His friend Harold Reed lived there. He went to school to get his Commercial Driver's License and became a truck driver. David, Suzanne and Floppy would drive all over the country. He worked hard for over 8 years for USA Trucking. He was doing really well but my mom couldn't stand being so far away from her son for so long. We all begged him to move home, I guess my mom knew that he was sick. Finally, he gave in and moved home. He went to work for Annheiser-Busch in 2006 and drove locally. Shortly after that he was unable to continue working and filed for his disability. That was granted but he was told that his condition was "pre-existing" and would be inelegible for medical insurace for 2 years. He died August 16 just 8 weeks shy of the 2 years lapsing. We were shocked to find out that if you never work a day in your life you are eligible for Medicaid but if you work and actually pay taxes you are out of luck. Surely people just don't know about this, surely someone cares. He got sick around August 4th with a staph infection in his leg. It was so bad the infection was spread from his knee to his foot, His leg was so swollen and cracking from the swelling, he went to the Mobile Infirmary West for treatment. They told him that he had MRSA and sent him home with two different kinds of antibiotics, Bactrim and doxycycline, We feel that his not having insurance had a lot to do with them not admitting him. He took the antibiotics even though they were really having bad effects on his stomach, he was so worried about the staph getting out of control so he made sure he took it. He told me and my mom that he thought taking both the antibitiocs together was really affecting his stomach. On Sunday August 16th Suzanne called my mother to come take him to the hospital about 12 so we rushed to their house. She said he was having bleeding rectally and it was profuse so we called 911 and told them he had lost a lot of blood and that he had a history of low platelets. When we got there he was sitting at the table and he looked so pale. He kept saying he was really dizzy, When the first man to respond got to the house we were not sure he was even at the right house, he got out of his truck and got out a fireman's suit and slowly began putting it on, he then came to the door walked in asked us about what was happening and then started trying to take his blood pressure, i saw he was having a hard time getting a pressure and tried it about 3 more times. I knew something was wrong but I prayed that God would take care of him. Finally the ambulance arrived and three emts got out, They went through a long process of trying to transport my brother to the hospital, if I had known that was the only thing they would do for him I certainly wouldn't have wasted the invaluable time, I would have taken him myself. When he got in the ambulance he called for Suzanne to make sure she was with him. The EMTs did nothing to save my brother's life, they never started an iv line or tried to give him any kind of blood expanders or even fluids. The doctor said that if he had had just a little more time with him he possibly could have saved him