My mom died seven years ago. We didn’t have a plug situation with her. She had cancer and went very quickly. You can go to a lawyer. They can draw up the papers (as I recall the whole will and everything was only around $300). Explain to them what you want to accomplish. They may ask your mother to relinquish rights over to you…I don’t know how that works, but I’d mention it.
We’re all in agreement as far as honoring my dad’s wishes. However, if one of us kids didn’t want to go through with it, the decision would ultimately fall on me. I’m glad that in theory, we’re all in agreement.
Obsidian your looking for is a “durable power of attorney for health care”, here’s one for California .
You can choose to appoint anyone to be your health care agent.
The two hospitals my mom recently visited had very nice printed forms (with wallet cards) in the most every room.
And here you are another person thinking they are the know it all, my beliefs out trump your beliefs. But irregardless, she is doing things the doctors said she would **not do ** that is an improvement.
I have a mentally challenged cousin that only grunts, I suppose we could put him down too. And I will state this one more time for those with trouble reading, she is doing more then breathing, she is responding to something. That is something the doctors said she would not do. No hope of improvement 4 days ago to, umm yeah she is responding to something, and breathing on her own. Yeah that is two improvements.
There is a massive difference between a person with PVS and a mentally challenged person. You haven’t provided much more of a description of your cousin, but based on my experiences with the mentally challenged he’s exhibiting more than basic brain stem functions. With PVS, there is no higher brain function…grunts, twitches, etc. mean nothing; the patient is just not aware of the surrounding environment. DMC’s PDF file explained this nicely.
So nice you’re willing to bet your life on this being irreversible, no wait it is much easier when it is someone elses life. If this young child comes out of this supposed PVS, I suppose that will settle this debate. Yeah in a sane world but in the SDMB it would just be grounds for someone saying something else to “back up” there all knowing beliefs.
If your cousin grunts in response to things, if he does more than lay there in bed, if he has self-awareness and can consciously respond to stimuli (which the patient in the article doesn’t), it is ridiculous to bring him into the conversation. He’s retarded, right? Not brain-dead. There’s a huge difference. The “responding” she’s doing is not conscious, so it doesn’t count.
Nope, also believe in a womans right to choose, but I do not see what this has to do with this debate. Unless you where trying to “label” me as a religious conservative ya know to further your belief that I cannot be right.
Diogenes the Cynic ever heard of misdiagnosis in these cases? I can show you cites with them if you would like. Actually the wiki link has a case or two as well as noting how often it is misdiagnosed. But thats okay, you would rather cling to straws to kill someone, while I would rather cling to them to save someone.
There is nothing to indicate that THIS diagnosis is wrong and sometimes a diagnosis of PVS is beyond dispute. The Schiavo case, for instance. Cerebral cortexes do not grow back any more than amputated arms or legs can grow back.
No, I’m not trying to label you as anything. I just happen to think you have a recklessly vague definition of what “life” is and I’m overjoyed by the fact that you will not be in a position to make that decision for me should my luck run the same way this poor kid’s did.
The degree of “improvement” she would need to function as a human being rather than a vegetable will never be met. It’s a needle in a haystack. The fact that she’s breathing on her own will never bring back the piece of her brain that was sheared. Your definition of “improvement” brings nothing to the debate.
"They haven‘t said much on what we could expect," said Allison Avrett, Haleigh‘s biological mother. "This could be as good as it gets. But they never expected this."
Bolding mine.
They didn’t say there could be “no improvement,” they said there could be no recovery from the PVS. Breathing is not recovering and is not an indicator that she can recover. There is no change in the PVS diagnosis and that’s the diagnosis that matters.
Just wanted to point out that your own link says PVS patients will respond to pain stimuli, which may be exactly what this girl is doing - so that wouldn’t mean she’s not in one.
But my own links said she was supposed to have no improvement and she did have some improvement why is that so hard to see? Maybe its not a “miracle” and she may never recover any more then that. But the facts are that she had improvement after them saying there would be none.
Because non-cognizant response to stimuli isn’t improvement, it’s simply a response. When Galvani’s frog’s leg twitched, it didn’t mean the frog was improving.
When the doctors say that there are signs of awareness, then there is improvement. I’m not expecting that to happen, but sure, it would be wonderful if it did.
On a side note, with all that the little girl has been through in her lifetime, if I were in her shoes I would indeed be fighting for my life, simply so that I could be cognizant long enough to say “Stop dicking around, and pull that shit out of me, so that I may die in peace, dammit.” If that bothers you, consider that it’s no more of a stretch than what you are proposing.
I agree. I think whoever gave the interview chose their words poorly. There is no way this is an improvement. But if further investigation makes the family happy, I suppose there’s no way around it.