Sad week for my family. One of my closest cousins suffered a massive stroke on Monday. He was pretty healthy. Bit of a beer gut, but regular mountain biker (NEK trails was an annual pilgrimage for years), frequent kayaker too. Only 54
He was put into a medically induced coma very quickly after being admitted to Brigham and Women's. Had a couple of clots removed, but swelling continued to build. The Neurosurgeon met with my aunt yesterday and asked if he had a living will. He did not. It was explained that her choice was either he has a craniectomy or he would die within hours. With the craniectomy he'd live, but will never be the same again. The stroke caused irreparable damage.
My aunt is a devote Catholic and strongly believes you must always fight until Jesus takes you. She fought to keep my uncle with cancer alive for probably a year longer than she should have because of her beliefs. I don't agree with that belief system, but I also respect those who have such.
We don't know yet if he will survive, but if he does it's many weeks in the ICU followed by a long, long stay in an LTAC facility. I hate the word, but the potential of persisting in a vegetative state is a highly likely outcome. Slight potential for a better recovery, but will require constant nursing care for the rest of his life.
I can't speak for Jim, but given his love for being physically active outdoors like all of us here, I have to imagine he wouldn't want to live in such a way as he's going to. We may never know from here.
I'm 46. I have been putting off the living will thing. My understanding is it's pretty inexpensive to do with a service such as legal zoom. I just haven't gotten around to it. Very few people I'm friends with have a living will in their 40s.
Time to change that for me. No one likes catastrophe planning, but you just never know.
He was put into a medically induced coma very quickly after being admitted to Brigham and Women's. Had a couple of clots removed, but swelling continued to build. The Neurosurgeon met with my aunt yesterday and asked if he had a living will. He did not. It was explained that her choice was either he has a craniectomy or he would die within hours. With the craniectomy he'd live, but will never be the same again. The stroke caused irreparable damage.
My aunt is a devote Catholic and strongly believes you must always fight until Jesus takes you. She fought to keep my uncle with cancer alive for probably a year longer than she should have because of her beliefs. I don't agree with that belief system, but I also respect those who have such.
We don't know yet if he will survive, but if he does it's many weeks in the ICU followed by a long, long stay in an LTAC facility. I hate the word, but the potential of persisting in a vegetative state is a highly likely outcome. Slight potential for a better recovery, but will require constant nursing care for the rest of his life.
I can't speak for Jim, but given his love for being physically active outdoors like all of us here, I have to imagine he wouldn't want to live in such a way as he's going to. We may never know from here.
I'm 46. I have been putting off the living will thing. My understanding is it's pretty inexpensive to do with a service such as legal zoom. I just haven't gotten around to it. Very few people I'm friends with have a living will in their 40s.
Time to change that for me. No one likes catastrophe planning, but you just never know.