keeping the brain dead alive

someone you know is on life support, the prognosis is not good, what do you do?

  • listen to the doctors

    Votes: 3 75.0%
  • listen, but give it a week more if they suggest turning off life support

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • give it another month

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • another year

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • f*** the cost, let them somebody pay for it forever

    Votes: 1 25.0%

  • Total voters
    4
  • Poll closed .

Oh my god. it's Robby!

spontaneously luminescent
hospital_hallway.jpg

So I've just watched a Louis Theroux that dealt with keeping people on life support long after there is any chance that they will wake up
or only wake up in some severely diminished capacity.
Now I happen to know for a fact that these cases are a massive drain on the American economy, whether it be in costs to individuals, the government or some entity(insurance companies :sick:) in between.
Also, I have personally dealt with this twice, first with my father back in 2001 and many years later with one of my brothers.
In my father's case I knew that after a week like that enough was enough and hearing from the doctors that he would never THINK like he did before, the decision was easy for me.
My mother had a more difficult choice, Ray was young, but I knew he would hate to be kept alive by some damn machine, he was about as "Luddite" as it gets, a real take care of yourself kind of dude, a throwback if you will to a different age, dammit, he was f***in Cowboy, he didn't just talk the talk, he walked the walk!
And well, even though he was all that, he was a organ donor, always looking out for others even in death so my mom had to make the decision after about 4 days,
the organs start to really degrade after that. She made the right decision, Ray's eyes helped another man to see again and his other organs went into another 3 people.
To be honest, this made his passing at 29 :( a little more easy to deal with, not much, but a little.
So when I see these people clinging to false hope, keeping the "dead alive" often at us taxpayer's expense, I get real angry.
It makes feel a little shameful when I see the statistics that minorities unable to pay for such care make up the majority of these costs.
I don't want to be racist, so what we really need is education, I get that these people see some usually "white doctor" and think he just does not care about their relative.
However, this is just not the case, because the facts are that we insured "White" Americans are about 70% less likely to keep the bodies of our loved ones "alive" beyond a week.
How to make this clear to those different I don't know, but if the USA does not then it will eventually drown in medical costs.
Not to mention the fact that one must recognize that the wishes of the "living dead" are often not recognized by these people :straightface:
and while many profess to "have faith" wouldn't the real proof of that be in turning the machines off, not relying on them? :cool:
 
Having been in the room when someone had to make that decision is not at all good, but having been in that room for weeks without even a little glimmer of hope is worse. I'd say listen to doctors but do give your time to come to terms with what's about to happen. Only once have I been somewhere when someone died without being in a controlled setting.(Hospital,etc) Having a person look into your eyes coming to terms with their imminent death is truly one of the worst feelings ever. It hurts just thinking about it.
 
I'm going with cryogenically preserved.
bitch :cool::p:lbf:
that was my dream when I was married, a shelf somewhere with our two heads looking lovingly at each other, forever :blushing:
but dreams die :squiffy:

ps: as to miracles, yes, they do happen, but in the last 30 years in the USA, 90% of people to recover from a near brain dead state happened to people under 21
and the vast majority were 15 to 20, so yeah, figure that into recovery, a strong body combined with a mind still making new neural pathways and you got a one in a million shot :thumb:
 
I dunno.....in my head I always feel like there is some glimmer of hope.....maybe the person can "hear" you. That's the way I felt when my grandmom was in a nursing home. She may not reply but I was always hoping she could hear and was comforted by us being in the room.
 
I dunno.....in my head I always feel like there is some glimmer of hope.....maybe the person can "hear" you. That's the way I felt when my grandmom was in a nursing home. She may not reply but I was always hoping she could hear and was comforted by us being in the room.

Kiss! where have you been? Did the warden take away your internet time? I've been granted more time, due to good behavior.

I feel the same way. Last September, doctors had my Dad in a drug induced coma for over two weeks. He wasn't brain dead- so I guess the circumstances were much different - But once he recovered, he started asking about things we were talking about while he was "out" and even on a ventilator.
 
I dunno.....in my head I always feel like there is some glimmer of hope.....maybe the person can "hear" you. That's the way I felt when my grandmom was in a nursing home. She may not reply but I was always hoping she could hear and was comforted by us being in the room.
OK, I get that, but did she need machines to breathe? or to be fed through a tube?
sorry, hope you understand that I am not trying to be being offensive, I just really wanna know :o
 
Kiss! where have you been? Did the warden take away your internet time? I've been granted more time, due to good behavior.

I feel the same way. Last September, doctors had my Dad in a drug induced coma for over two weeks. He wasn't brain dead- so I guess the circumstances were much different - But once he recovered, he started asking about things we were talking about while he was "out" and even on a ventilator.
wow, I'm happy for you, but would like to know more details, since I fear many people are given false hope
in my experience, the problem is people getting false hope, I am thinking that doctors told you your dad would likely recover
which is awesome, but the fact is that thousands and thousands of people are given false hope by doctors for one reason or another
when the truth is that many people are being told something that is less than true, luckily in my case I was educated by my father's doctor
and when he made it understood that my father's temporal lobe had been severely damaged and that his parietal lobe, including those parts dealing with math and the like were obliterated, well, since he was a brilliant engineer, it defined him in so many ways, I simply could not do that to him, I mean they made it clear there was only a million in one chance or worse for him to "wake up"
and no chance he could do something like simple algebra, truly a moment where he would have rather died :straightface:
 
Depends on their age. My Grandad was kept alive for at least a year or two longer than was natural to him and the persistent saving of his life just seemed cruel in the end.

If somebody is young then I can understand the not wanting to give in. Certainly if the person is your child. I can't imagine ever readily accepting the turning off of a life support machine on one of my kids should they end up in that situation.

Speaking of it impartially though it's a bit odd that we don't accept people dying anymore and with the ever increasing population it'll be our downfall.
 
Depends on their age. My Grandad was kept alive for at least a year or two longer than was natural to him and the persistent saving of his life just seemed cruel in the end.

If somebody is young then I can understand the not wanting to give in. Certainly if the person is your child. I can't imagine ever readily accepting the turning off of a life support machine on one of my kids should they end up in that situation.

Speaking of it impartially though it's a bit odd that we don't accept people dying anymore and with the ever increasing population it'll be our downfall.

Sorry about your grandad. I agree with you except for one thing. I believe you are using age to mean possibility for recovery. Some older people do recover and some younger people don't. I just think it should be based on the patient's wishes mostly, and the possibility of recovery.
 
Sorry about your grandad. I agree with you except for one thing. I believe you are using age to mean possibility for recovery. Some older people do recover and some younger people don't. I just think it should be based on the patient's wishes mostly, and the possibility of recovery.

Yes you're right. I got locked in the tunnel vision of my Grandad's condition - multiple strokes over a few years - and the realisation that with each one he would only be getting worse. It seemed incredibly cruel to keep him alive and I wouldn't wish anyone to suffer like that.
 
Kiss! where have you been? Did the warden take away your internet time? I've been granted more time, due to good behavior.

I feel the same way. Last September, doctors had my Dad in a drug induced coma for over two weeks. He wasn't brain dead- so I guess the circumstances were much different - But once he recovered, he started asking about things we were talking about while he was "out" and even on a ventilator.

Been around.....just avoiding some of the other topics here.....this one peaked my interest.
 
OK, I get that, but did she need machines to breathe? or to be fed through a tube?
sorry, hope you understand that I am not trying to be being offensive, I just really wanna know :o

Not at all OMGIR.......she was not on machines or needing tubes. But at the very end she was not in a good way.

- - - Updated - - -

And in regards to being pulled off life support, thought this was interesting:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/a...dead-FOUR-doctors-makes-miracle-recovery.html
 
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All of this is simple really - if I'm in their Will pull the plug! if I'm not in their Will pull the plug!
 
From the title alone, I figured this would be a thread about force feeding realitybites...
 
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