Man 'Trapped in Coma' for 23 Years Was Awake Whole Time

Thatmight be apples and oranges. My ex wife's mother was on a respirator for years. She wasn't brain dead at that time.

BTW, even if my mother wasn't brain dead, I wouldn't allow a respirator. Those are her express wishes. It would not be what I want, but those are her wishes, and I will honor that.

 

None of the reports I have read said she was brain dead, do you have a link? It did state her brain had shrunk to half it's size and she had irreversible brain damage...but I can't find where she was ever declared brain dead.

 

There was no proof whether or not Mrs. Schiavo was brain dead, at least not until her autopsy, which was too late if she had had any cognitive ability. Why not err on the side of caution and give these patients the benefit of the doubt. After all, how much trouble would it be to continue to feed or otherwise care for these people until they die naturally?

 

I guess I should be more clear, since using layman's terms like "brain dead" is ambiguous. What I'm referring to is her cerebrum. Her autopsy showed the bulk of her cerebrum was not only infarcted (dead), but that the infarcted tissue had been replaced by fluid, something that is indicative of the infarction being chronic, and not acute. Involuntary function aren't contrilled by the cerebrum. They're actually controlled by the brain stem.

Anyhoo, that's a long-winded way of saying that there was no formal activity in the cerebrum. Most of the cerebrum was long dead. No cognition, consciousness, feeling, thinking, etc.

The concenses, though, is whether a person has the right to choose to not have lifesaving or lifepreserving procedures done. We generally concur that they do. When a person is in such a state, it befalls that person's spouse to make that determination.

No doubt about it, the guy was a pig. But it's a matter of record that he first wished to excercise termination of lifesaving procedures back in 1993, before he had a girlfriend. Had he not backed out of it then, this would have been an issue. As much of a pic as he was, the responsibility for making medical directives was still his. He even gave power to make that decision to the court rather than him making the decision himself.

 

Dead years ago.

Dehydration or starvation. Take your pick.

 

So she wasn't legally brain dead, and they had no business depriving her of sustenance that would keep her alive. Another case of judges creating law from the bench instead of interpreting it.

 

Not so. Next of kin are frequently permitted to decide advanced care directives. It's a difficult decision family must make every day. It's not reserved only for people whose brain activity is flatline. For example, if my mother has a heart attack, I will direct medical professionals not to revive her. That is her wish. It's not a decision that I ever want to make, but it's her wish. Some will say "she could easily have been revived", which might be true, but it's not her wish.

Again, not so. The law expressly gives a spouse the right and privilege of determining advanced care directives. Michael Schiavo, albeit a fornicating pig, was still her husband, and therefore legally entitled to make that decision on her behalf.

 

True, but her parents wanted to take over her care and he could have divorced her. But then he wouldn't get the insurance settlement. Pig is a good description.

 

The funny thing about that is, Terri's parents told him in 1991 to "get on with his life" and start dating. That makes them party to the pigfeed. That aside, court records show they were in diagreement over Terri's care in 1993. He wasn't a pig yet, even if his tail was already starting to curl. He didn't start dating his current wife until 1995.

He got an insurance settlement of $300K in 1993, which is his and his exclusively (before he met his current wife), regardless. Another 750k went into a trust fund for Terri's care, but iirc, that money was for the most part exhausted by the time Terri passed away.