How Long Do You Want to Stay Plugged In(on Life Support)?

I watched “Monkey Bone” the other day and they said that your chances of coming out of a coma after 3 months go down dramatically. That might be bs afterall it is a movie.

But it got me thinking about how long I would want to stay plugged in instead unpluged like mtv. :smiley:

I think about 6 months(it would be nice sabatical(sp) if you know what i mean a good rest from everyday life especially people Ben and Esprix. :D) but after that go ahead unplug me and I will go to a better place.

So what about ya’ll how long do you them to wait to unplug you? I guess if you are an atheist you would say never leave me plugged in because you have nothing else to look forward but coming out the coma alive right. :wink:

Long enough for the doctor to say, “No hope of a meaningful recovery.”
Then yank the plug and ship me off the crematorium.

OTOH, if he says, “Oh, she’ll come out of it in a few days and fully recover,” then stay the heck away from my plug!

Mrs. Amp and I have talked about this in great lengths. We both decided that 6 months was a nice round figure. We’ve even left it in writing just in case we both happen to be in the same unfortunate accident.

:rolleyes: Keep your comments to yourself.

As to the question posted, keep me plugged in. Unless and until I find a vampire to turn me to a child of the night, I plan on holding onto life for as long as possible, machine-assisted or not. You unplug me, I’m coming back in the next life as the baseball bat that’s gonna bash your skull in.

Esprix

Resounding it depends. Not only on chances of recovery, but on what kind of recovery. I’d rather not come back at all if the other option is coming back with extensive brain damage. At least until such time as some bright bulbs figure out how to convince the brain that neurogenesis is a good thing to do in such cases.

Other than that, give it a few months. Then unplug me and take every useful part of my body that can help other people with recoveries that don’t require miracles so much as, say, a new liver. Cremate the rest.

If I could recover fully, then keep me on. If I’m not going to be able to come back and live a normal life, or I’ll just be kept alive forever by machine, unplug the thing.

I agree with blur. I’ve watched too many people I loved kept alive via machine for no good reason.

The one person in my family who was not put on life support was my nephew. Once he was diagnosed as terminal,my sister took him home, kept him as pain-free as possible and he died surrounded by people who loved him, in his own bed, and with a smile on his face.
If I have any say in the matter, that’s how I want to die.

How about don’t plug the damned thing in the first place.

No extraordinary methods. Bagkitty is quite willing to accept that he is going to be converted to a pile of ash one day… don’t intend on rushing it, but neither am I going to go to great lengths to avoid it either.

First I’d like to placed on the machine until we perfect cryogenics.

Then I would like to be frozen until we perfect human cloning.

After that, i want my head kept in a jar like in ‘Futurama’ until a clone of my body can grow to adult size.

Then my brain can be placed into the clone and its back to business as usual.
So I guess my answer is about 1,000 years.
Oh yeah, placing my brain in a Terminator style robot is also acceptable.

Probably not very long, if at all.

If its a minor thing (ie, healable and my brain is fine, just a little help while the other systems come back on line.) then plug me in.

If the pretty green lights aren’t coming back on, turn off the rest of it and hand the functional bits to someone whose hamsters are still turning the wheel.

I gotta go with Esprix. As long as there’s electricity to go into the machine, keep 'er running. I may look like I’m in a coma, but somewhere in there I’ll be fighting like hell to get out.

Another question to Esprix and Rickjay.

Now what if keeping you plugged in is causing undue financial hardship on your family. Then what?

If there’s no hope… pull it.
If there’s great probability that I’ll live life with great brain damage… pull it.

I don’t want to be a financial/emotional/psychological hardship on my loved ones.

If it comes to that, then someone else is welcome to my organs.

Then cast my ashes over my favorite dive spots. But save a little to be put inside the tune ring of my favorite drum.

Awwww yeaahhhhh…
Percussion ad eternum.

I’ve discussed this with my family at length.

Under no circumstances is anyone to remove me from whatever mechanical means are necessary to keep my pulse pulsing. No way. I think a living will that provides for taking away life support is like pre-premeditated suicide (for me, anyway - YMMV). I don’t want to die. Not now; not ever. I realize it’s inescapable, but I’m putting it off as long as I can. I’ve stressed to anyone who might one day have to make the decision for me: “Yes. I WOULD have wanted to live that way.” If I’m a head on a plate with wires connected at the temple, keep the electricity coming.

I feel the same way about my parents. My sister and I are both such wussies about this kind of thing that our parents will outlive us if there’s any way to keep them going. I would never, ever, EVER make the call to pull the plug.

On the other hand, my 97-year-old great-grandmother suffered a massive stroke last year after a near-century of perfect health. Her daughter, my great-aunt, made the difficult decision to have no feeding tube put in. My grandma’s doctor told her they could do that and she’d die a relatively painless death in a few days (she was given I.V. fluids but no meds). The catch was that once they decided to put one in, it couldn’t be taken out. What a horrifying choice, eh?

As for “undue financial burden” - what the hell is undue about keeping a loved one alive? It’s only money, for shit’s sake. I’d spend my last cent to keep my husband, kids, parents, sister, etc. warm to the touch for one second longer. I expect no less from them.

—Yes, I do understand the other side of this. Fine for you, and anyone else who feels that way. I just ain’t checking out until absolutely necessary.

I agree with Kinsey,

Long enough for the doctor to say, “No hope of a meaningful recovery.”

untill then leave the plug in.

Thumbs down.

Unplug my ass, send the good guts to someone who can use 'em (but don’t give my appendix to the “doot doot” guy), and throw my bad guts in the trash.

–Tim

Another “unplug” here. Oh, give it a few days or so, but if it looks like I’m either not waking up or I’m going to have serious brain damage if I do, pull it. I should get this down in writing, I guess, but my family knows how I feel.

If the only thing that’s keeping me “alive” is a machine then I figure I’m already dead. Why draw it out?

Not that I WANT to die, but there are situations where I think it’d be preferable.

I’m Canadian, so the plug is paid for.

Even if it wasn’t, my family would not consider keeping me alive to be an “undue hardship.” Shit happens. That’s why I have insurance - I’m consciously planning NOT to cost my family money.

Thanks for the reply Rickjay.

Canadian huh? DO ya’ll’s maple syrup really taste that much better than ours? Somebody told me one time you gotta try the maple syrup from Canada.

Yeah. being Canadian rocks! I agree with some others on here, unless there’s a massive power failure, keep power flowing through me, and the plug duct taped/superglued/whatever works. Keep me alive, I want to live!!! Now maybe I should tell my family this … :o