Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: Pfunk on July 09, 2003, 10:56:50 AM
-
Remarkable, how in the world did they keep him on support that long that had to cost $$$$$$$$$$$$
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/07/09/health/main562293.shtml
-
Ever watch the Simpsons?:
Newscaster: "Tonight on Eye Witness news. A man who's been in a coma for twenty three years wakes up!"
Man: "Do Sonny and Cher still have that stupid show?"
Doctor: "No, uh, she won an Oscar and he's a congressman."
Man: "Goodnight!" (Beep as man suffers a Cardiac Arrest)
-Sik
-
Wow, that is amazing. Can you imagine trying to soak in all that has happened in 19 years?
-
Coma started and ended on Friday the 13th....
Unbelievable though...I can't imagine losing 19 years...
-
Damn, 84 is when I graduated, seems like forever ago. I can't imagine going for a drive at 20 yrs old and waking up 39.
-
I hate to say it,but if that happened to me..I'd want my family to pull the plug after insurance ran out.And not one second longer.
-
what sucks even more then being in a coma is waking up and being 39 years old.
Wounder if he still like Michael Jackson?
-
Makes me wonder about the Terri Schiavo case.
=====From The Concorde Monitor Online ============
Legal fight over comatose woman in a coma
Thursday, December 26, 2002
By the Associated Press
CLEARWATER, Fla. - For years, a woman's husband and parents have fought over what she might say if she only could.
Terri Schiavo was 26 when she collapsed in her St. Petersburg home in February 1990 and fell into a coma. She remains in a Pinellas Park hospice, receiving a liquid nutritional supplement and water through a feeding tube. She is on no other type of life support.
Her husband, Michael Schiavo, wants the tube removed, saying his wife would not want to be kept on life support. Her parents say she would. The dispute has divided euthanasia opponents and those who say they support death with dignity.
After more than three years of court wrangling, Michael Schiavo, his wife's legal guardian, won an order to remove the feeding tube on Jan. 3, 2003.
But a judge has postponed his ruling until an appeals court hears from Terri's parents, who want her kept alive. Doctors say Schiavo, 39, would likely die within two weeks if the tube is removed.
"This is a nightmare of a case," said Dr. Bill Allen, director of the University of Florida's program in bioethics, law and medical professionalism. "The way it's gotten caught in the legal system ... there's no closure for anybody here."
He said the Schiavo case is a prime example of why people should make their end-of-life wishes known early.
Doctors believe a potassium imbalance caused Terri Schiavo's heart to stop, temporarily cutting off oxygen to her brain and causing her to collapse into the coma.
An attorney for her parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, recently alleged that domestic abuse may have been the cause, an accusation vehemently denied by Michael Schiavo and his attorney, George Felos.
The Schindlers say their son-in-law is motivated by money and personal desire. They say he would inherit the remainder of a $700,000 medical trust fund awarded to his wife in a 1992 malpractice lawsuit and wants to marry another woman, with whom he had a baby girl in September.
Michael Schiavo sued the doctors who did not diagnose the potassium imbalance, and the money from the suit was supposed to pay for Terri's lifelong treatment and care. Only about $140,000 would remain after Michael Schiavo pays his lawyers, according to court documents.
Separately, Michael Schiavo received about $300,000 from the malpractice award.
He denies he's motivated by money and says he simply wants to carry out his wife's wishes.
"Everybody has lost sight about what this whole court case is about," Schiavo said in a recent interview. "And that's what the frustrating part is, because it's about Terri. This whole thing is about Terri."
Michael Schiavo once had a close relationship with his in-laws, even living in their home for two years. Bob Schindler said everything changed once the money from the malpractice suit came in February 1993; he said Michael didn't appear to be rushing to seek new treatment for Terri.
"I finally confronted him and we had a violent argument about Terri and he said he's making the decisions and whatever he decides to do, he'll do and it's none of my business," Schindler said. "It only got worse from there."
Michael Schiavo said Terri once told him that she would not want to be kept on life support. The Schindlers say Schiavo didn't mention their daughter's wishes until after he won the money.
Michael Schiavo first filed a petition to remove his wife's feeding tube in May 1998.
Circuit Judge George W. Greer ruled in March 2001 that the tube should be removed. The feedings stopped for two days before another judge ordered them to resume.
Last month, after hearing testimony from five doctors, Judge Greer ruled again that the tube should be removed.
Two physicians selected by the parents testified that Schiavo could recover with specialized therapy. A video shown in court showed Schiavo's eyes open. Her parents say it also shows her apparently tracking movement.
Doctors selected by Michael Schiavo said no treatment would ever help her. A court-appointed physician said Terri Schiavo would never recover a meaningful life.
Jana Carpenter, a registered nurse who has organized protests against the removal of the feeding tube, said providing nutrition to someone is a basic need. Her group, a right to life organization of doctors and nurses, Professionals for Excellence in Health Care, opposes euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide.
"If the Humane Society were starving animals to death, people would be going berserk," she said. "Yet because Terri makes other people uncomfortable because she doesn't have the quality of life you and I have, fellow humans have no problem getting rid of her."
Felos, Schiavo's attorney, said a feeding tube can be as much an invasive form of life support as a ventilator.
In the late 1980s, Felos was involved in the right-to-die case of Estelle Browning, a Clearwater nursing home resident who wanted her feeding tube disconnected. Despite her living will, a trial judge refused to let the tube be removed.
A 1986 stroke left Browning paralyzed and attached to feeding tubes, and Browning's guardian began a legal battle in 1988 to remove the tubes. Browning, 89, died still connected to the tubes before the case was settled.
Two years later, the Florida Supreme Court cited a state constitutional right to privacy and ruled caregivers may withhold food and water from an incapacitated person even when death is not imminent.
-
Originally posted by SirLoin
I hate to say it,but if that happened to me..I'd want my family to pull the plug after insurance ran out.And not one second longer.
Would you want them to keep you on life support after the insurance money ran out, but before the medical malpractice award ran out, too? Or would you want them to keep the cash and get on with their lives? Better house, better car, better clothes, college funds, investments.... or you. Hmmmm.
Something to think about on the drive home from work. ;)
-
Originally posted by Chaos68
what sucks even more then being in a coma is waking up and being 39 years old.
Wounder if he still like Michael Jackson?
I woke up this morning and I was 38. Its not so bad. Reflexes are a bit slowed and I have some grey hairs, but that's about it. And I don't like Michael Jackson!
-
Originally posted by gofaster
I woke up this morning and I was 38. Its not so bad. Reflexes are a bit slowed and I have some grey hairs, but that's about it. And I don't like Michael Jackson!
yeah, but "last night" you were not 19 ...
I don't worry about that, my wife and I have a "pillow" pack - I put a pillow over her head after 6 months in a comma and she has agreed to wait a week before doing the same to me :)
-
the food and water tube is not life support. they removed those on my grandfather when I was 6, I watched him die of thirst. it was horrible.
turning off 'iron lungs' or whatever they call the machines that keep your hart beating is one thing. but saying that taking away food and water is 'removing life support' is no better than smothering them with a pillow and claiming that you where just unhooking the life support provided in the air.
it's not a 'mercy' it's neglect. is it life suport when you feed a baby too young to feed themselves?
-
Originally posted by capt. apathy
is it life suport when you feed a baby too young to feed themselves?
Well, technically, yes it is. You are supporting the baby's life, and without the external support, it would die because it is incapable of providing for itself. So it all depends on how you define "life support."
-
Well, technically, yes it is. You are supporting the baby's life, and without the external support, it would die because it is incapable of providing for itself. So it all depends on how you define "life support."
thats how I see it too. so I see removing of the food and water tube as no less of neglect than to just stop feeding a young baby. what comes next? people being allowed to just stop feeding babys, with the excuse of 'care was too expensive', 'he just lays there and eats and craps, what kind of existance is that'?
I see no real problem with euthinasia in general as long as the person is allowed to make the decision for themself and are reasonably stable at the time the decision is made. but this type of death is just cruel.
If the decision is made not to let a person continue their life, then put them out of their misery. if you've made this kind of decision then have the balls to act on it, give them an overdose, smother them, or whatever. but just letting them die of thirst is one of the most painful and drawn out ways to die I could imagine.
-
Originally posted by SirLoin
I hate to say it,but if that happened to me..I'd want my family to pull the plug after insurance ran out. And not one second longer.
That's why everyone needs a living will and advanced directive.
Oh, and useless nitpick: He wasnt' in a coma, he was in a persistent vegatative state.
-
I am waiting for ripped to come in and tell us that he was once in a coma for 20yrs.
-
Well, this guy will still have long years to come.. but I guess hes happier that way than dead
Guess he must learn to walk again and so on...
-
I bet that guy pissed for like a week after he woke up.
-
Totally agree with apathy. Disconnecting an iron lung or whatever is one thing... but simply taking away food and water is not removing life support, it's pure death due to neglect. I think you ought to be provided those at a minimum, and there should only be a debate about disconnecting whatever else may be needed to keep someone alive.
"but I guess hes happier that way than dead. Guess he must learn to walk again and so on..." - Fishu
The article said that guy (19 years) is a quadriplegic. Kinda like his brain just came alive... The rest of him is pretty much still in a coma.