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My father passed away last year at age 91. He had been diagnosed with dementia in his early 80s. He quickly lost his ability to communicate coherently. My mother never gave up hope and single-handledly care for him up until 6 months before he died. While in the earlier stages we assumed that he was increasingly unaware of his surroundings, we later learned through a new type of MRI that he actually was still completely comprehensive of everything around him and that only the part of his brain that controlled speaking was affected. If you had met him you would think he was totally out of it but he was still all thereexcept for for his ability to communicate. He would still react and laugh and wink his eye and even sing (perfectly and on key) throughout his affliction. As he became more elderly he caught colds more easily and we would have to take him to the hospital for treatment. Each time we checked him in I was immediately asked by the nurses if we wanted them to do anything to treat him. I was stunned! He only had a cold! It was like it was common for people to bring in the elderly and decide through power of medical authority to withhold treatment as simple as antibiotics from them. Blew my mind. Everytime this happened I would say OF COURSE WE WANTED HIM TREATED HE ONLY HAS A COLD!. He was on and off a feeding tube through the last year of his life because of the doctors' fear of him choking on food. Each time my mother would insist on therapy and tests that would prove he could swallow properly and he would be able to again enjoy my mother's home-cooked meals. I think because of his advanced age and the bad luck of having to be in the hospital several times where staph runs rampant, he finally succumbed to the worst staph found in hospitals. My mother and I decided early on that it was up to him and to God to decide when his life would end and that we would always do everything we could to keep him alive. I was with him the night he died and he was totally aware and reacting to me the entire night. Terri's situation is so beyond appalling. People are so ignorant and it is so frustrating and horrific that they can get away with this.

"...he caught colds more easily and we would have to take him to the hospital for treatment....I was immediately asked by the nurses if we wanted them to do anything to treat him."

"Um, I'm sorry, I must have misread what it says on the outside of this building! I could have sworn the letters spelled the word 'HOSPITAL' over the door! WHAT DO YOU MEAN 'DO I WANT TO TREAT HIM? ISN'T THAT WHAT YOU DO HERE???" (Heeere's your sign....).