Monday 23 November 2009

Think hard, look harder before you switch off!

Some of the things that catch my eye are very troubling. Presumably we've all heard of PSV - Persistent Vegetative State and have heard of the court cases, arguments and judges' rulings surrounding patients suffering this condition. Some argue for life-support machines to be switched off, others want their use to be continued indefinitely and always there are well-meaning, well-trained advisers suggesting one action or another. Undoubtedly it is heart-breaking for the families and friends closest to the patient when there seems little basis for optimism.
For the patients themselves it can be a living nightmare. As a child, when my understanding of death was less than it is now, I had waking nightmares of being buried but still conscious, trapped and unable to make myself heard. Those patients who are aware of everything going on around them but unable to communicate in any apparently meaningful way live the nightmare every moment of their lives, screaming silently, panicking and incapable of escaping.
The man in this particular case lived with the horror for 23 years. Who can imagine the feelings of freedom and relief he now experiences? For him the day his condition was truly recognised really was his second birth.
There, but for the Grace of God . . .

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