Family promise gave life to man in 31-year coma

[Squinch]

6. Totally serious. My mother had all the paperwork in place - living will, advanced directive, DNR -

all of it. At 86 she had a surgery. After the surgery she had two strokes and then went into a comatose state.

We asked that she be taken off the respirator according to her wishes. A major New York trauma hospital said they couldn't because by law they needed to provide post-operative treatment.

Then we said, "Fine, we'll move her to hospice so we can take her off the machines." The hospital said, "You can't take her to hospice to take her off the machine because we don't have the portable respirator that you can use in the ambulance to get her to hospice so you can get her off the respirator."

We had to wait two days to get the portable respirator to take her to hospice where could take her off the respirator.

I learned later that the time in the ICU waiting for the portable respirator was just enough that they could list her as having survived the surgery.

Coincidence? Hah!