Posted on 09/16/2006 8:44:44 AM PDT by Jawn33
Perhaps the last word should go to Pat Flores, the mother of George Melendez, the 31-year-old coma patient who reassured his parents that he wasn't in pain after taking Ambien, as zolpidem is known in the US. He was starved of oxygen when his car overturned and he landed face down in a garden pond near his home in Houston, Texas, in 1998. "The doctors said he was clinically dead - one said he was a vegetable," says Pat. "After three weeks he suffered multi-organ failure and they said his body would ultimately succumb. They said he would never regain consciousness."
He survived and four years later, while visiting a clinic, Pat gave him a sleeping pill because his constant moaning was keeping her and her husband, Del, awake in their shared hotel room. "After 10 to 15 minutes I noticed there was no sound and I looked over," she recalls. "Instead of finding him asleep, there he was, wide awake, looking at his surroundings. I said, 'George', and he said, 'What?' We sat up for two hours asking him questions and he answered all of them. His improvements have continued and we talk every day. He has a terrific sense of humour and he carries on running jokes from the day before.
(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...
She might have lived to try Ambien if he had let her be turned over to her parents.
Or she might have died years earlier.
Wishes we all survive the love sometimes shown us by family. Yet some have not, yet are well remembered.
"Brain-dead": A term coined in 1968 to facilitate the harvesting of organs.
I see that in re Hitler you stand to the side of repeating great and horrible mistakes because we cannot learn from what is no longer allowed to be mentioned or considered.
So why err on the side of death? Why is death favorable to life?
I believe in the Bible. I have no idea whether you do or do not. But there is a statement in Ecclesiastes that I believe is relevant to these discussions.
Ecclesiastes 9:4
Anyone who is among the living has hope--even a live dog is better off than a dead lion!
A dog is the lowest of creatures in the Middle East, a lion the most powerful and respected. This verse clearly states that is is better to be alive and lowly than dead and dignified.
I believe this.
Interesting. I wonder if this would help people with brain damage, but that are not in a coma.
My daughter has severe brain damage, and so I am curious.
Occasionally one will crop up in the news. I just avoid expecting the same results from different circumstances. Maybe if I were 20 years younger and had not yet seen people I've loved pass on, I could be so... naive(?)
Yes, the article gives many examples of brain damage being helped with this drug. I would recommend showing the article to your daughters physician and see if you can't get a trial done with her.
The Jewish sages advise that a town should have horses and dogs -- in part I think to warn by barking and neighing of marauding predators like a lion or two.
Give me a break...fear life? Sorry you fear death so much. In my spiritual viewpoint, there are things worse than death. lying on a bed for 40 years, unable to communicate with anyone, having loved ones take care of my body is high on the list of frightening prospects.
I believe in the Bible, too. I also believe in an afterlife. I've watched loved ones pass on and my faith in God and gotten me through those times. When the Lord calls you home, it's time -- regardless of how much those left behind would wish otherwise.
I'm so sorry.
When my Uncle Bill and my Aunt Liz were on life support, we ended it. Being kept alive with a machine is artificially prolonging life.
But my Aunt Wanda was never on life support. She was never on a machine. She lived for 40 years in a PVS. We would never had thought about starving and dehydrating her to death.
I wouldn't go on the record for saying "don't unplug me".
My brother had to be put on a ventilator to breath, and my sister-in-law and my niece and nephew had him unplugged.
My brother had cancer, and was never going to recover. They just waited until the family could gather around, and then they unplugged him.
I know my dad would not want to be on a ventilator, and would want to be unplugged if he has to be put on one. However, he is almost 80 years old and has congestive heart failure.
Now, on the other side of things. My twin daughters when they were 6 weeks old, got sick and had to be put on ventilators. One of them was on a vent for a month. Now at 10, the one on a vent for a month is a very smart sweet girl. Her sister has brain damage from the illness, but she is a hardworking, interesting kid. She does have severe speech problems and has had a hard time with reading, but I wouldn't trade her for anything.
I think you have to look at each individual case to see if a person should be kept alive with a ventilator. If it is only to prolong a terrible illness that a person will never get over, then I don't see keeping them on a ventilator until they die. If it is to temporarily help them get over an illness, then I say keep them on a vent.
My daughter also has brain damage from an illness when she was a baby. We couldn't do an MRI on her while she was on a ventilator. After she came home, we decided to treat her like a normal baby as long as we could. She developed somewhat normally except for speech. At 3, we decided to get an MRI even though her neurologist was sure she didn't have any brain damage. She was doing too well. Well, she did have lots of brain damage.
Doctors are still amazed that my daughter can run, walk, and play like most kids. Her speech is still horrible and it is affecting how she reads. She is weaker on her left side, and she is also prone to temper tantrums. However, she can take care of herself, she is gifted in math, and about 95% of the time she is really fun.
I think doctors and caregivers just really don't know much about the brain. Parents have to use a lot of their instincts when taking care of a child with special needs.
Apparently this patient was in the difficult but not impossible range. A coma can be mild, moderate or severe, which is determined by the patient's score from the Glasgow scale.
Another strawman, and just a weak as the first one. I've already answered this.
-Traveler
An excellent position, except that she orally stated she did not want to live "hooked up to a machine" (reference to Karen Ann Quinlan).
-Traveler
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