Posted on 01/19/2005 9:51:40 AM PST by Mo1
IN MY TWENTY YEARS AS A RESPIRATORY THERAPIST WORKING IN EVERY AREA OF HOSPITALS, I HAVE NEVER SEEN A BRAIN DEAD PERSON WHO DID NOT REQUIRE MECHANICAL VENTILATION. WHEN REMOVAL FROM LIFE SUPPORT WAS CONTEMPLATED, TWO DIFFERENT NEUROLIGISTS MUST DO A TEST CALLED A "SILENT CEREBRUM" AND THEY BOTH MUST AGREE TO THE DIAGNOSIS OF BRAIN DEATH. I HAVE BAGGED HUNDREDS OF PATIENTS THROUGH THIS TEST. WHEN BRAIN DEATH WAS DETERMINED, THE ATTENDING PHYSICIAN SIGNED THE DEATH CERTIFICATE. I THEN REMOVED THEM FROM THE VENT.
TERRI IS NOT BRAIN DEAD. SHE IS BRAIN DAMAGED. THESE TWO DIAGNOSES ARE NOT THE SAME. IF TERRI WAS TRULY BRAIN DEAD, THERE WOULD BE NO NEED FOR US EVEN TO BE HAVING THIS DISCUSSION.
Exactly, it's very personal to me too. If it was about just her, I wouldn't care. It wouldn't be my problem, but it isn't. This imbecilic law the House passed, if the Senate follows through is going to cause thousands of court fights like this every year and untold misery for so very many people. Scroll up and read Gran's post about Al's sister. That is a case from right here among us that would have ended up in court for years under the new law instead of being settled among the family.
The new law will make living wills requesting no life support almost worthless.
There is a reason the law is essentially the same in all 50 states right now. It is because there is a consensus among Americans as to how they want their affairs handled if they are not able to do it themselves. Now all 50 of those laws are to be thrown out and replaced with a horrible Federal law because of one freak case. The case of a woman who did nothing to save herself.
I understand how very painful this is. I had to do this for my father.
My father took 10 days to die.
I had him at home.
I bathed him and changed his diapers and kept his mouth and lips moist and read to him though he wasn't really there anymore.
It was the hardest thing I have ever had to do, but it was what he had asked of me.
I love you too Sweets, but right to life freaks have already made it impossible for my father to have the quick painless death he so wanted, now they are going to make the deaths take years or be illegal altogether.
I won't go through that again if something should happen to my son, and it might, he's a deputy sheriff. I will go into his room and put a bullet through his head and release him. Then I will kill everyone who tries to come for me. Maybe if I kill enough it will create a big enough scandal to equal this mess and get the laws fixed for others.
If you want to be kept alive forever on a tube, fine, but leave the rest of us the hell alone.
So9
Terri doesn't disagree with me, overriding the laws of 50 states because of her disagrees with me.
So9
(just a thought - i think all lower case would look better)
The long lost BQ! I haven't seen you around for awhile. Hope everything is OK with you.
We had to put down our Maine Coone cat, Maia, a couple of weeks ago. She was 15 1/2, and I've had her since she was 4 months old. It's always hard to lose one of my little fur friends.
I do NOT want to be starved to death, nor die of thirst, no matter what.
IF my case is TRULY hopeless, AND there is TRULY no HOPE of recovery, AND there are NO loved ones willing to take care of me, an OD of morphine is fine with me.
But not starvation/dehydration.
/s/
null and void
Pretty much what I told my husband. Since he is a physician, he has told me that there are substances that can be injected that are pretty much untraceable at autopsy. Give me one of those - I don't want him to go to jail.
I'll keep that in mind...
Brain death is an established condition, and Terri is not brain dead.
We don't get to choose if we will be born healthy or sick and we don't get to choose if we die suddenly or piece by piece.
It's not fair, sure ... but life isn't fair. Why expect it of death?
For the record; me neither! I wouldn't want to be kept artificially alive if I was truly braindead, but artificial life support is totally different than food and water. I wouldn't want to be actively euthanized either, although if I was in such severe pain that controling it required dangerous amounts of drugs and I died as a result when I would have died anyway, then so be it.
There is absolutely NO justification for the torture they're subjecting this poor woman to. If we starved or dehydrated a dog or cat to death, even if it was sick, we would be severely fined, jailed or both. But the laws that are designed to protect human beings under the Constitution are being ignored and the very authority of the Constitution is being usurped by the distorted and agenda driven mental processes of black-robed dictators, who have no regard for the spirit of the law or even for life itself.
I'm pretty suspicious of his motives, since he only "remembered" that his wife said she wouldn't want to "live that way" many years after the incident that damaged her brain. And this memory only occurred after he won the hundreds of thousands of dollars in the medical malpractice suit. I guess large sums of money do wondrous things for one's memory.
Exactly, Terri may be getting unfair treatment, but that's no reason to change the law for the rest of us.
Besides, if she had a Living Will or a better taste in husbands, she wouldn't have this problem.
So9
Even smart people pick bad spouses. Wanna meet Margaret next time you're out this way?
Why shouldn't that choice be available to all of us?
And by the way, this is just the nose under the tent of the pro-life loonies. They want to force everyone to be kept alive as long as possible regardless of their wishes. They will come right out and say it when they get worked up.
As a diagnosed Type II diabetic, a massive insulin overdose will pass muster on me, even though I am not taking insulin, but I have loved ones to consider.
So9 So9
I had one too, in case you're ever in Houston and in a masochistic mood.
A living Will will take care of things, at least until Congress finishes the bill the House passed.
Picking a bad spouse and not having a living will and being stricken like Terri is is the trifecta. The law can't protect everyone from everything.
So9
It should. In cancer cases where a person is on a morphine drip, the drip can be (and often, is) increased. Then there is the thing known as "benign neglect" where say, a stroke victim who is pretty much gone isn't treated with antibiotics for pneumonia. I don't disapprove of such actions.
Afternoon, Dahlin':)...
well, ok, its afternoon somewhere... actually its afternoon where I am but the time of that post says otherwise. LOL...
second paragraph...without should be with...
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