Re:It's Getting Harder to Die
by LorenPechtel on Saturday June 29, 2024 @03:03PM
(#40832696)
That was my mother's philosophy. The hospital is for fixing you up and sending you home. If the sending home part isn't going to happen she didn't want treatment.
The reality is there comes a point where the doctors can only prolong the dying--and in an awful lot of such cases that's a negative for the person.
He got pneumonia at the stage where he was having to use an oxygen machine at home. At the hospital he asked the doctors if he'd be able to go home, and they said it was highly unlikely.
So, he asked them to turn off the oxygen, which they did. He passed peacefully a few hours later.
Sure, we might have gotten a few extra months with him, but I'm so glad the doctors respected his wishes. My worst fear was him having to endure something like what you describe.