Right to Die

[Margies3]

I'm here to tell you that the absolute hardest decision anyone can ever ask you to make in life whether to pull the plug on your loved one or not.

When Walt's aneurism ruptured, about 2 weeks into this, one doctor came to me and said, "You need to start thinking about whether you want us to turn off the life-support or not", then walked away. OMG!! This is a man who has already survived a ruptured aortic aneurism - something that doesn't happen! And he'd made big progress on the road to coming back to us. But still there's a long, long ways to go. And now this man wants me to make a decision about whether we "let him live or not"???

I AGONIZED over that!! We had children - a 16 year old and a 12 year old. God had already brought him sooooooooo far. I just couldn't say "go in there and pull those plugs". I just couldn't. I did agree that if they had to use the paddles again, they should not do that.

But then another doctor says to me, "I am NOT willing to give up on him yet. Please let him have 3 more days and let's see what happens during that time."

Hallelujah and thank you, Jesus, for that doctor! Because in 3 days, he was beginning to breathe on his own, his eyes were opening up and he had come light years!

And we all know how well Walt has done since then.

On the other hand, if he had been 80+ years old when this happened, would my decision have been the same? I don't know. No one knows until they are actually THERE. That's the thing I've learned from this. You don't know what you would do until you are in that situation.

So how can I find fault with any decision that anyone makes when they are in the midst of that crisis? I can't. It's not for me to judge. Only to love them as they are making the most agonizing decision they will ever make.