An Australian case similar to Terri Schiavo?
The brother of a man whose brain was badly injured in a car crash is fighting to keep him alive. In some ways the case is similar to when the parents of Terri Schiavo waged their battle, just over a year ago. Doctors say the 31-year-old man will never wake up from his coma so his mother wants to remove his feeding tube after 6 months. By law, that is the mandatory time to wait for patients in the permanent vegetative state. However the brother wants to keep the man alive, arguing that his mother should not be permitted to speak for him since she did not raise either of them. Instead, she dumped them on their material grandparents. Furthermore, the brother noticed that the patient opens his eyes for up to seven minutes, and sometimes does this apparently in response to hearing his name spoken loudly. Doctors don’t seem impressed; instead they emphasize that the patient does NOT move when his skin is pinched. It will be interesting to see whether the Australians stick to their guidelines for timing this decision, or prolong the agony. That happened in the cases of Nancy Cruzan (7 years) and Terri Schiavo (15 years) in the Unites States. Six months will be up in August.
Who should speak for the patient? Will his vegetative state be permanent? Should his feeding tube be continued?
This is a sad case because the person who the law designated to make the decision to end this life is the one who gave birth to that live but then abandoned it. If you want to make sure of who will, and who will not make medical decisions on your behalf if you no longer can, you should create a “Proxy Directive” and list your people preferences.
The kind of brain injury determines how long neurologists wait to decide whether there any potential for recovery of functioning. Mechanically traumatized brains sometimes recover after longer comas than brains deprived of oxygen. The patient briefly described here may be in a Permanent Vegetative State, with no awareness of, or ability to respond to the environment. Such patients as well as those who suffer from irreversible progressive dementia rarely recover, so tube feeding can be considered futile (of no real benefit to the patient).
Who should speak for the patient? Will his vegetative state be permanent? Should his feeding tube be continued?
This is a sad case because the person who the law designated to make the decision to end this life is the one who gave birth to that live but then abandoned it. If you want to make sure of who will, and who will not make medical decisions on your behalf if you no longer can, you should create a “Proxy Directive” and list your people preferences.
The kind of brain injury determines how long neurologists wait to decide whether there any potential for recovery of functioning. Mechanically traumatized brains sometimes recover after longer comas than brains deprived of oxygen. The patient briefly described here may be in a Permanent Vegetative State, with no awareness of, or ability to respond to the environment. Such patients as well as those who suffer from irreversible progressive dementia rarely recover, so tube feeding can be considered futile (of no real benefit to the patient).
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