Jury Duty: A Life or Death Situation

"Don't let us get sick
Don't let us get old
Don't let us get stupid, all right?
Just make us be brave
And make us play nice
And let us be together tonight..."

- Warren Zevon


I was talking to my boss, Gene, at work today about the case I just served on. It was a malpractice case against a young doctor by an elderly patient. It is a tragic situation, the woman suffered a catastrophic stroke while shopping with her husband. The paramedics got there quickly, stabilized her blood pressure and rushed her to the hospital where they hooked her up to life support and administered drugs to reduce the swelling in her brain. They saved her life, but I wonder if they really just cheated Death out of a hand he was meant to have.

The stroke occurred three years ago. The woman was released from the hospital and has now recovered as much as she ever will. She is unable to speak or comprehend written language, she must be fed by a tube, she is incontinent, and one side of her body is paralyzed. She spends her days watching TV, which her family says she seems to get some measure of enjoyment out of.

Much as we would have liked to award the woman's family the money they wanted to ease their burden, We, the jury, couldn't with any reasonable certainty find that anything done differently by the doctor would have been able to prevent this unfortunate occurance. I really feel bad for the elderly husband and their son, who are sacrificing all of their time to care for her in their home.

The trial was somewhat disturbing to me, my grandfather suffered a similar stroke. He did not wish to be kept alive in his condition, but had to be removed from the hospital in order for the tubes to be removed, so he could be allowed to die. It was not an easy thing for the family.

I told Gene I have a living will. I, like my grandfather, would not wish to be kept alive in such a condition. Gene told me something that gave me pause to think, though. His father had been admitted to the hospital a while back, very ill. By the time they figured out it was a perforated ulcer, peritonitis had set in. He was bloated, unconscious, at death's door.

The doctors did all they could, but didn't give him very good odds of surviving. If he did make it, they thought he might be brain damaged. It took quite a while, but he made an amazing recovery, and is now completely back to normal. If he had a living will in place, they might have let him die.

Maybe I should modify my living will somehow, to allow room for amazing recoveries? I don't think there is any way to make such a provision though, too much of a judgement call. One thing's for sure, If by some chance, my fate is to survive like that woman, I would not want to be at home, a burden to my family. I told Viv if that happens, put me in a nursing home and go on with your life. Bring a bottle of barbituates as a present when you come to visit. I'll use my good hand to pop them into my feeding tube after you leave.