Hannah's Choice: Saying No To A New Heart

[donheld]

Talk about heart breaking


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/11/13/hannahs-choice-saying-no-_n_143693.html

The story of a 13 year old British girl who is refusing a heart transplant because she'd already been through enough pain reminds me that when you're looking for the right answer, humility may be as essential as wisdom.

Hannah Jones's leukemia was diagnosed when she was four; she later developed heart disease, and has endured chemotherapy and nearly a dozen operations. This past summer, when doctors told her that without a heart transplant she'd be dead in six months, she refused to go through with it. "I've been in hospital too much - I've had too much trauma," she told the Guardian. She was not asserting a right to die; she was suggesting that she had a right to live on her own terms, and to decide whether the benefit was worth the cost.

No one was promising a cure: without a transplant her heart was sure to give out, but the operation could kill her, as could the complications that might follow. Anti-rejection drugs could reignite the leukemia; another transplant might be necessary in just a few years.

[renate]

1. her parents are so much stronger than I could be

I couldn't do it. I admire tremendously their respect for her wishes and I might, just possibly, have been willing to support her in her decision, but I would have used the threats from the children's protective services as an excuse to make her accept the transplant. Not because I love my children any more than her parents love her--they're just stronger than I am.

:cry:

[davsand]

2. I know a man who had a heart transplant about 15 years ago.

His quality of life is terrible, and I have heard him say more than once that he and his family would have been "better off" had he died prior to getting the transplant.

This man (H.) was a fire chief at an Air Force base and he and his wife raised two productive, happy kids that have either adopted or had kids of their own. Had H. died 15 years ago he would never have had all this time with his grandkids (one who is a bio-med researcher working on alternatives to current dialysis techniques) his wife would have been a widow at 55.

He also would have been spared dialysis for the last ten years, permanent cauterization, >$1000 of drugs per month just to stay alive, repeated bouts with different types of cancers, and bi-weekly stays in the hospital with systemic infections.

More than once H. ran into a flaming building to save lives, and if he tells me it isn't worth it to him to keep on going, I'm inclined to take is seriously. He has courage to spare--always has--and I fully believe that it should be his call when he's feeling he's been thru enough.

If that girl feels she has had enough I respect her wishes too.



Laura

[malaise]

3. I love her parents

Clearly they have told her everything including the complications of a new heart.
It's her already frail, sick body - she must know her limits. I respect her choice.