DNR and health directives

wil

wil

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I never acted on my thoughts in this regard.

But if I had I would be dead today...this has led to serious rethinking of my end of life wishes.
 
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My wife and I have advance directives in place basically stating life is to be sustained by whatever means deemed medically viable.

My mom decided to sign a DNR in her late 70's stating that if there was no reasonable chance of recovery, do not resuscitate. At age 87 that came to pass and the hospital honored her wishes.
 
I’m always intrigued by this topic. A close friend from college, late 30s, married with kids, and reasonably healthy...a bit overweight but not obese. She has a DNR order and said she felt compelled by a higher power that she is meant to only get to a certain point in life and if she needs resuscitations, her time has ended.

I’ll admit I’ve tried challenging her on this topic since I’m worried about her young children and husband. It hasn’t worked so far.
 
My feeling on that is, if I'm not meant to live past a certain time, the resuscitation will be unsuccessful. Whereas if I do not allow the resuscitation and I was meant to live longer, my purpose in life may go unfulfilled. Perhaps even preventing someone else from fulfilling theirs by not allowing them to save me.
 
If I was in a non-reversible, persistent vegetative state, let me go. Just keep my body functioning long enough for any/all usable tissue to be harvested for some-/anyone who needs an organ or two to survive.

Phyllis Sidhe_Uaine
 
Namaste Jesus said:
My feeling on that is, if I'm not meant to live past a certain time, the resuscitation will be unsuccessful. Whereas if I do not allow the resuscitation and I was meant to live longer, my purpose in life may go unfulfilled. Perhaps even preventing someone else from fulfilling theirs by not allowing them to save me.
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That's similar to how I look at it. I'll at least let them try. My cousin had an awful experience giving birth 6-7 years ago. She died on the table, but they shocked her and brought her back. She hasn't had any serious health issues in the years since. To think that if the roles were reversed with her and my friend, then we'd have been mourning her for almost a decade. I cannot wrap my head around that.

Phyllis Sidhe_Uaine said:
If I was in a non-reversible, persistent vegetative state, let me go. Just keep my body functioning long enough for any/all usable tissue to be harvested for some-/anyone who needs an organ or two to survive.
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This also sums up my feelings. I'll let them shock me to bring me back, but I have no desire to be in a vegetative state. I've seen how tough that is on family members when there isn't a written document about the patient's wishes about what to do in that state.
 
I think the issue is between treatment of a sudden catastrophic event, and treatment in the case of chronic illness.

In the latter, when terms such as 'aggressive end-of-life treatment' comes into play, more than 80% of doctors themselves have a DNR in place.

The issue is the degree of impairment suffered by someone who already suffers a chronic and terminal condition. 'Aggressive end-of-life treatment' means keeping the patient alive, whatever, and invariably results in a patient in a much worse condition.

It's a tough one.
 
wil said:
I never acted on my thoughts in this regard.

But if I had I would be dead today...this has led to serious rethinking of my end of life wishes.
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@wil
Immensely relieved that you are alive today. It appears IO will probably just fade away without you.

God has been with me all these years. God knows I don't want to get so old I just can't even carry myself. God knows. God will decide.
 
God guides my steps. I rely completely. So even if I step wrong, it comes out right. I ask for nothing else. All respect and regards to you, brother ...
 
StevePame said:
That's similar to how I look at it. I'll at least let them try. My cousin had an awful experience giving birth 6-7 years ago. She died on the table, but they shocked her and brought her back. She hasn't had any serious health issues in the years since. To think that if the roles were reversed with her and my friend, then we'd have been mourning her for almost a decade. I cannot wrap my head around that.


This also sums up my feelings. I'll let them shock me to bring me back, but I have no desire to be in a vegetative state. I've seen how tough that is on family members when there isn't a written document about the patient's wishes about what to do in that state.
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The idea of remaining in a persistent vegetative state reminds me of this case: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karen_Ann_Quinlan

She remained that way for years.

Oh, and both of my parents were comatose towards the end of their lives (I was in the room when mom passed away due to cancer.)

Phyllis Sidhe_Uaine
 
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