There is a lot of national news regarding the 13 year-old girl who died as a result of complications from a tonsillectomy. The hospital claims she is actually dead, that her body is only functioning as a result of being on a life-support system.
I am a retired intensive care registered nurse who has been involved in many of these cases during my career. It can be very confusing at times, especially to family members, as to when a person should be on life-support.
This matter should be settled by a person signing a living will that will eliminate this confusion. However, some living wills can create confusion. Generally speaking, a living will should state that when there is no chance of survival, a "do not resuscitate" should be in place. The problem with some living wills is that they do not state this explicitly, and I have seen family members insist on someone not being placed on life-support when a person has a good chance of survival, such as being in a car wreck or some other temporary critical problem.
As for this 13 year-old young girl being kept alive on life-support; the truth of the matter is that she is not alive. Her soul is gone. Only her body that has housed her spirit is being kept alive.
In the "old days" before some regulations were strictly put in place, I had a patient that was left on life-support for months. Our intensive care unit had glassed-in rooms, so that we could keep an eye on them without having to go into the room and to help to keep cross-contamination of bacteria or other diseases separate from each patient.
This patient began to smell terrible, like a dead person, even though his heart beat, blood pressure, and other vital signs were good. He was even given medications and nutritional support. The numbers on the high-tech equipment made him look as if he was doing fine. At first, his autonomic nervous system would react slightly to voices or touching. Finally, this ceased.
However, even though we nurses and the doctors knew that we were treating a dead person, he was treated as if he was alive, which he was not. To hang intravenous medications (IVs), I would have to take a very deep breath, due to the unacceptable foul odor that I would encounter when I opened the door and entered the room; then I would rush in and do what I needed to do. When I could not hold my breath any longer, I would exit the room, relax a moment, and take another deep breath. I would have to do this a minimum of six times before I could complete my tasks. Finally, a court order allowed the doctors to take him off of life-support so that he could be buried.
The guidelines have changed over the years, and I am certain that the doctors would not consider taking this child off of life-support unless they were absolutely certain that she is not alive. The family is looking at this situation as if she is in a coma, which is quite different than being declared "brain dead."
I have personally faced this hard decision myself, and I know it can be a difficult one to make. My husband was put on life-support even though he had a living will. He was a terminal cancer patient, and he had serious heart disease, with a previous heart attack which resulted in open-heart surgery. At this point, he was terminally ill. This was a case where we were consulted as a family about carrying out his wishes per his living will. We decided to put my husband's fate in the hands of God and to take him off of life-support. If he was to live, it would be up to God to determine his appointed time to die.
The doctors took my husband off of the life-support, and he lived. He was treated with medications and nutrition. However, he died within three days. We were comforted, knowing that God had decided to call him home.
I just hope something happens to prove to the parents of the 13 y.o. that they should leave the decision up to God, and not wait until she starts to smell like a dead person, because I can still vividly remember how that other patient smelled, even after twenty years. It is not a good memory.
I have seen families insist on patients being kept alive, primarily because they are not able to cope with their death unless they have done all they can to extend the life of a loved one. However, this can cause a patient to spend their last moments on earth being tortured with numerous lines and tubes inserted throughout their body, a tube being shoved down their throat so they can breathe, and other futile treatments that can make the patient miserable. Sometimes, the greatest act of love is to simply let a patient go home to God.
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