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HollyTheColliegirl

Life Support

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Living simply because of life support terrifies me. I'd want the plug pulled.

 

However, from the other side, it's not as easy as that. Making the decision to pull the plug is a tremendous one and a difficult one. Even if you know for sure the person would want it pulled, it's still going to be hard to pull it.

 

*huggles to Holly*

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i would want the plug pulled, only if i had absoloutley no chance of getting better. if i had at least a reasonable chance i'd want to be kept going unless i could say otherwise. i personally don't like the thought of my life not being in my own hands it makes me very uncomfortable. when i think about people who keep braindead relatives alive just to keep seeing their face reminds me of a puppet situation. it's kind of like their bending that persons life to their will, that they have the choice of their life or their demise.

 

i don't even get why they would keep braindead friends/relatives/ect... alive. because it's not actually them. they've lost their personality, their thoughts, everything that they can use to identify themselves without an ID card or a clipboard with their given name on it. sure they still have their DNA, and structure, and their physical appearance but their mental identity is gone. whoever that person was is no more. it's just their body.

 

people who are not braindead, and can choose between pulling the plug or being put on life support then leave it up to them. they can still talk and tell you what they want. they are still them, and if they want to be put of pain forever it's their life they get to choose.

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Well obviously if I was brain dead, I'd want the plug pulled. However, there are a few other situations where I'm not sure I'd want to be kept alive. If I was severely brain damaged and would never be able to live on my own again, I'd want the plug pulled. I don't want to be a burden on someone else if I'm not going to be able to recover. I'm only considering brain injuries here and ignoring situations where I'd be trapped in a potentially useless body.

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My relatives all know that if they are asked whether the plug should be pulled, the answer is yes. There is no way to know how one will come out of something like that, and I do NOT want to take the risk. I also have a DNR on file and have notified my doctors etc that I have an advanced directive in place; it's with my lawyers.

 

I have no time for keeping alive at all costs - can yu tell ?

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If life support was the only other option, pull the plug, I don't fear death I fear pain and imprisonment.

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If you have to be kept alive with a machine, that is not quality of life.

 

If it was me, I want the plug pulled as hard of a decision as it may be

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I'm to be an organ donor and if I can arrange it my brain is going to be dissected, so if I should happen to be in the right kind of accident, I'll probably be on life support for a while while things are arranged. I hope that it isn't in any way unpleasant--the thought of lingering in pain scares me, but I'd be willing to endure it for the sake of the people that would be helped by keeping me on life support for a week or two. Under no circumstances would I want to be kept alive simply for the sake of being kept alive. I wouldn't be willing to endure any suffering simply so my loved ones can delay their grief--plus it wouldn't be good for them.

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I hope that it isn't in any way unpleasant--the thought of lingering in pain scares me, but I'd be willing to endure it for the sake of the people that would be helped by keeping me on life support for a week or two.

On the flipside, this is the one thing from keeping me from being an organ donor. I've had a terrible fear of it since watching an episode of 1000 Ways to Die actually - this guy was in an accident, and declared dead. But he was still alive enough to see and feel everything that was going on, but not talk or move. He had to endure the pain of having his organs removed and watched the whole thing. Might not have even been real, but the fear's still there. I just wish people wouldn't call me selfish for my decision...

 

That said, if I were brain-dead or unable to care for myself, I would want the plug pulled.

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*huggles to Holly*

Thank you sock, I appreciate it.

 

It turns out now we won't have to pull the plug, the relative passed on their own just 30 minutes ago. I'm kind of relieved that we didn't have to make a decision that we might regret for the rest of our lives, but I'll certainly miss her.

 

RIP. x

 

Now, off to the support thread...

Edited by HollyTheColliegirl

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I'd want the plug pulled, but, as crazy and traumatizing as this may seem, I'd want my loved ones to see it happen, so they know I'm dead.

 

I want them to be with me the last moments of my life, whether or not I'm aware of it

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Having just spent a year working in an Intensive Care Unit, I have now firmly decided that if there is no chance of me recovering mentally I want the machine to be turned off. And depending how critical I was, I'd like to think I'd agree to a DNE/DNR if required.

My personal viewpoint is that when a person is already braindead, there is no longer a reason to keep the rest of their bodies going.

If someone is medically brain-dead (i.e. brain-stem death or absence of brain activity) then the plug is pulled by the doctors in the UK - someone who is brain-dead is just as dead as someone who's heart has stopped or lungs have packed in. The ones we've had on our unit were kept 'alive' for a few more hours to allow relatives to come in and view them, but the moment brain-stem death is confirmed that is recorded as time of death, and that patient is dead.

As I previously mentioned, I wouldn't want to rack up a bill.

It's so sad to think that in America this is such a prevalent factor in all medical treatment. I can't help but wonder how many needless deaths have occurred just because someone couldn't afford the treatment they so dearly needed.

I agree that could be a problem but majority of these cases people never recover. If they do it takes many years and by then the bill is +$$. You basically wouldn't want to be alive lol. Hmm, anyways I don't deny there are extremely rare cases where people recover in months and I can see the families hoping for that 'chance'. It's just very unlikely especially with my luck lol.

There is this common misconception about 'brain-death' being something you can recover from - you can't. If you are brain-dead, you are brain-dead. No recovery, ever. But you do have the whole range of brain damage to work in, from a mild concussion right up to permanent vegetative state (which is what is often referred to in lay-terms as 'brain dead'), and some do come out of persistent vegetative state. I watched someone who was apparently major brain damaged go from being completely unresponsive to being able to talk to his family inside of two weeks. (It was one of my most heart-warming moments when he first smiled at me, the first sign that he was aware of the outside world after spending nearly a fortnight with no sign of recovery and the serious discussion of DNE/DNR).

 

Yes, sometimes it can takes years for someone with brain damage to recover and they may never regain quality of life - and yet there are an equal number of people who snap out of it inside of a week and return to full functionality. Given that the survival rate of someone admitted onto an Intensive Care Unit is over 80%, it is also a gross inaccuracy to say that they 'never recover.' A lot of people do survive and regain some decent quality of life.

On the flipside, this is the one thing from keeping me from being an organ donor. I've had a terrible fear of it since watching an episode of 1000 Ways to Die actually - this guy was in an accident, and declared dead. But he was still alive enough to see and feel everything that was going on, but not talk or move. He had to endure the pain of having his organs removed and watched the whole thing. Might not have even been real, but the fear's still there. I just wish people wouldn't call me selfish for my decision...

If it helps, the criteria for confirming death (in the UK at least) is checking for a heart-beat via stethoscope and checking breathing for breathing for a full five minutes. Where possible, ECGs and other toys are also used to be certain.

I want them to be with me the last moments of my life, whether or not I'm aware of it

This, so much. I think it's one of the most important things about death is to have someone there for that person, even if we think they're not aware. A relative, a friend, even if it's 'only' an auxiliary, I believe it is important that there is someone at the patient's side.

Edited by Kestra15

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I would hate relying on a machine with my mind still functioning, mainly because of my conspiracy theories. However, if I were brain-dead, I would be dead in my definition of it, so I wouldn't see any reason to keep the rest of my body alive.

 

 

Really, if people are mentally dead, then...why keep them alive? Their DNA is all that's left. It's not really them in there, just an empty shell.

 

 

However, if they could choose, let them choose!

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Even if I was braindead, I think I would appreciate having the chance to have some time for some gear in my head to get knocked back into place and have a chance to live. Now, if there was no progress in a year, than I would just pull the plug because at that point there is no use keeping my body alive. If I was consciously thinking while hooked up to a machine, I think I would hate to be there, but I wouldn't give up on my own life because it is just too precious to give up. I am an atheist, so for me there is no comfort in death.

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If it helps, the criteria for confirming death (in the UK at least) is checking for a heart-beat via stethoscope and checking breathing for breathing for a full five minutes. Where possible, ECGs and other toys are also used to be certain.

I'm not quite sure what the law is in the US, but it doesn't reassure me much. The fear's already set in deep.

 

Probably doesn't help that I used to date a guy who has been declared legally dead more than once.

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I would hate relying on a machine with my mind still functioning, mainly because of my conspiracy theories.

What theories would those be?

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Although I am terrified of death, the answer of whether or not I'd want the plug pulled depends entirely on the situation. If I had been in an accident, and rendered brain-dead, with no hope of recovery, then I'd want the plug pulled. It'd break people's hearts, but then again, What's the quality of life, if you don't even have a mind? There isn't, in my opinion, and so, I'd rather not have my family spend money on life support when there's nothing left.

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Give me last rites, have the doctors do a third check and pull the plug or don't hook it up to start. If I can't get better, can't communicate and am going to drain the family's finances and not be able to communicate with them, no thaks. it's not life as I'd want it.

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To me it depends a lot on if there is a chance of recovery or not. Pain and the level of consciousness are also important to consider.

 

Brain dead is an absolute plug pull. All you're doing is wasting money to keep the body alive after the person is dead.

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I honestly don't know what I would do if it were someone a I cared about.

 

If it were me I would probably not want to be on in the first place. I'd rather be dead than sit around doing nothing for ages, even if there is a chance for recovery there's also a chance for me to go back afterward. I don't want to deal with that. (I suppose my family would be all upset? That might be something that would make me try to keep going.) I also currently have self esteem issues and the like and feel pretty worthless, so that might be affecting how I think.

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