Which Side Would you Want to Err On?

Well, this is awkward.

On June 8, his wife, Rebecca, asked doctors to remove his food and water tubes. But Jesse's family took her to court, and a Maricopa County Superior Court judge ordered the tubes reconnected and appointed an independent attorney to mediate between the families and to talk to Jesse's doctors.

Now, he can hug and kiss, nod his head, answer yes and no questions, give a thumbs-up sign and sit in a chair.

Republicans were roundly criticized for their conduct of the Terri Shiavo affair but where is the national outrage over near killing of Jesse Ramirez?  Think what a tragedy it would have been if the wife's demands to starve Mr. Ramirez to death had been accomplished.  How often does this happen? 

So we now have two diagnoses that are widely viewed as mistakes.  The pull-the-plug crowd will argue that Terri Shiavo was clinically brain dead and that her food and water should have been removed much earlier. 

Mr. Ramirez is alive when last week doctors were one the verge of starving him to death. 

Mistakes happen.  But as for me, I want to err on the side of life. 

Comments

[Tim]

How does Rebecca feel? I'm not sure that's a card Hallmark has written yet!

[ron]

I went over and read the comments at the azcentral.com site. That was an education!

Not sure what to think about the folks out there on the street. The MD from MN made the most sense.

[The Klute]

"The pull-the-plug crowd will argue that Terri Shiavo was clinically brain dead and that her food and water should have been removed much earlier."

No, the "pull-the-plug" crowd didn't argue that Terri Schiavo was clinically brain dead... The "paying-attention-to-medical- science" crowd argued that point, born out from everything from the doctors who actually examined her to the autopsy performed by the Pinellas county medical examiner.

Of course, none of them was nominated for a "Nobel Peace Prize in Medicine" or diagnosed them from watching a video tape, so maybe they were wrong.

[Travis]

I agree with Greg. Err on the side of life. The sanctity of of life should be reflected in all of our decisions - notice I didn't say "quality of life".

I would also suggest being VERY nice to your spouse.

[Surprised]

I can't believe more hasn't been made of the fact - in ANY of the coverage I've seen - that no one has mentioned Arizona law specifically says that a spouse cannot order nutrition and hydration tubes pulled without a power of attorney or a court order.

So in other words, Hospice of the Valley broke the law. It's unlikely that they didn't know about this provision (considering that they deal with situations like this all the time) - so the only alternative we're left with is that they routinely disregard the law and it finally caught up with them.

Can anyone say "malpractice?"

[Cathi Herrod]

The Ramirez case makes one wonder how often feeding tubes are taken out of people who might wake up one day otherwise. Instead, they are starved to death.

For those who want to understand these issues and know what decisions are appropriate, checkout www.bioethicsconference.com for information about a November 3 conference on this very issue.

[Al]

Always err on the side of life. Terri was literally murdered by our failure to understand what brain damaged means. I am the father of a severely brain damaged son. He is a real person who is very much cared for. He enjoys life and a feeding him what he needs through a tube would not change that. The slow agonizing death from taking away all fluids kills our soul.