Probably a combination…I’ve never seen a person on life support, but I’ve been told they appear fairly lifelike, as if they were sleeping. Combine that appearance with grief and strong religious belief, and I suppose it would be very easy for a person to go into heavy denial when a doctor tells them that their loved one isn’t there anymore.
My my Father was brain dead, my cousin, who spent Summers with my Parents before I was born, asked me to tell him that she needed help. When I did, he tried to sit up. I always regret that I didn’t beat her with a stick until she went in a talked to him.
When my uncle was at the end, my cousin told me he was wheeled quickly out of ER in front of him and his mother with a ventilator, apparently so they would not be looking at his motionless body. Not sure if that is really true.
That might be true for now, but it won’t be for long. She’ll develop contractures, and her limbs and hands and feet will be in odd positions, and so will her head, eventually. She’ll be gaunt from the diet fed through either a stomach or nasal tube. He lips will be chapped, because even though she’ll be suctioned, she’ll be drooling. Her complexion will probably change. She’ll lose a lot of muscle, and look whithered. She might get bedsores.
I’ve dealt with people with quadriplegia, and it’s a struggle to do exercises to keep a lot of these things from happening to them. There’s a lot of motivation to do it for someone who is alive and talking to you. Nursing home employees do their jobs as far as doing stretches and sponge baths, and repositioning for people who are brain-dead (or vegetative), but it’s very hard work that isn’t rewarding when the person isn’t aware of it, and doesn’t really benefit, since in some sense, they aren’t really alive, so the employees don’t go any extra miles.
I don’t want that to sound mean. But it’s reality. I’m sad for this woman if that’s what will have to happen to her body before her family can recognize that she’s really gone.
Not Arnold Palmer, but Billy Casper another Hall of Famer. Dead at age 83.
Might have been a good year for a Golf theme.
Won over 50 PGA Tournaments and 3 majors. (1 Masters and 2 US Opens)
No Link yet.
There you go for Billy Casper.
RIP Billy Casper. I remember him from his final years on tour and his Senior Tour years. They weren’t on tv much back then like they are today. He and his accomplishments certainly were talked about in the past 10-20 years on PGA Tour tv coverage. Big golf fan.
Dean Smith, legendary Basketball Coach for the North Carolina TarHeels four corner defense has turned the ball over.
Dead at age 83.
17 points for me. (and probably some others)
Yes! I’m finally on the board!
Smith played on the 1952 Kansas Jayhawks basketball team that won the NCAA title in 1952 under Kansas coaching legend Phog Allen. Smith later served as an assistant coach under Allen. So he learned from the best!
Completely disagree with you. She was on stage with her mother accepting an award at two years old. She has been in reality TV shows. She has been tabloid fodder for years. She may only be famous due to an accident of birth but she is not famous for her illness. If we disallowed those who became famous due to their family members we would have to dump most Bushs, Clintons, Windsors, kardashians…
Yes. Please. Let’s dump most of the Kardashians.
I have a feeling the dump would reject most of the Kardashians. 
Shoeless and notfrommensa both get 17 points for Dean Smith.
Damn, another great NC basketball coach down. Coach K’s the only one left.
<Insert disparaging remarks about Smith and Krzyzewski here>
Maus Magill - Remembering how several editors at the N&O laughed at Coach Valvano’s death.
It was known at the time as the “four-corner offense” because the UNC team would be in possession of the ball. As I recall, it consisted of a very skilled game of keep-away. There was one U.Va.-UNC ACC championship game (1982?) where Dean Smith had his team go to the four corners with something like 7 or 8 minutes to go, and a one-point lead. It worked, too - but IIRC, that game may have been what finally got enough people to say it was time for a shot clock.
There’s a fine homage to Dean Smith at, of all places, Mother Jones.
Baker, did you forget to post the standings at the beginning of the month, or are they hidden in plain sight to me?
Somebody wants to revel in being in second place!
1 It’s Not Rocket Surgery 92 2 1
2 notfrommensa 68 2 0
3 MadTheSwine 61 2 0
3 Quartz 61 2 0
5 bassett hound 51 1 0
5 bowler girl 51 1 0
5 candide 51 1 0
5 Captain Klutz 51 1 0
5 carnivorousplant 51 1 0
5 critter42 51 1 0
5 Dr. Girlfriend 51 1 0
5 Fear Itself 51 1 0
5 Fleetwood 51 1 0
5 Happy Lendervedder 51 1 0
5 Hockey Monkey 51 1 0
5 Hoopy Frood 51 1 0
5 irritant 51 1 0
5 Kitten Mitten 51 1 0
5 Little Nemo 51 1 0
5 Loach 51 1 0
5 minionkat 51 1 0
5 phungi 51 1 0
5 Registered at Last 51 1 0
5 RobotDevilDog 51 1 0
5 RTFirefly 51 1 0
5 Sami41 51 1 0
5 Squonk 51 1 0
5 Tim R. Mortiss 51 1 0
5 Yllaria 51 1 0
5 zoog 51 1 0
31 CAMJAY77 38 1 1
32 Vashbul 25 1 1
33 Little Pig 18 1 1
34 Shoeless 17 1 0
35 Grits and Hard Toast 10 1 0
35 Icarus 10 1 0
37 Dusty Rose 6 1 0
37 Lok 6 1 0
37 missred 6 1 0
40 Andrew21 0 1 1
I liked this part of the article, at the end, when it had been told how Smith helped get desegregation going in Chapel Hill.
He leaned forward in his chair and in a very quiet voice said something I’ve never forgotten: “You should never be proud of doing what’s right. You should just do what’s right.”
BUSTED! :o