A PERFECT STORM (via Robert Schwartz):

'Why am I not dead?' (DON COLBURN, March 04, 2005, The Oregonian)

An Estacada man's attempt at doctor-assisted suicide last month took a bizarre turn when he woke from a coma nearly three days later and lived for two more weeks.

David E. Prueitt, 42, who had lung cancer, died at home of natural causes Feb. 15 -- 16 days after he ingested a supposedly lethal dose of medication prescribed by one of his doctors in accordance with Oregon's Death With Dignity Act.

Barbara Coombs Lee, co-president of the assisted-suicide advocacy group Compassion & Choices, confirmed Prueitt's case Thursday after family members went public with details.

"He did take a complete dose and slept soundly for 65 hours," Lee said. "Then he awakened. He suffered no ill effects. He was fully capable and competent -- and surprised."

Prueitt's wife, Lynda Romig Prueitt, recalled that when he woke early Feb. 2, he asked: "What the hell happened? Why am I not dead?"

He survived 13 more days, coherent and alert, she said, before dying of his cancer. [...]

Prueitt's experience has divided his family. Janice Davidson, Prueitt's older sister, said she opposes doctor-assisted suicide for religious reasons and was shocked to find out about her brother's attempted suicide.

"I believe that if his family had been notified, David would not have done this," she said. She visited him a few days after he woke up from the drug overdose and described him as coherent.

"If it was an assisted suicide, it wasn't done right."

Prueitt had an up-and-down life. Relatives described him as a proud, hardworking logger who smoked for years. Records show that he served seven years in prison after a rape conviction.

His grown daughter, DeAnndra Rowland, said her father told her in January that he "wanted to go in his sleep." He never mentioned doctor-assisted suicide or the Death With Dignity Act, she said.

Prueitt kept his attempted suicide from most relatives and friends, his wife said, because "he didn't want them to think he was taking the easy way out." [...]

Two days after Prueitt woke up, he told his wife he had been in the presence of God, she said. By her account, Prueitt said God had rejected his death by suicide and sent him back to live out his days and die a natural death.

Steve Prueitt, of Beaverton, David's brother, opposes doctor-assisted suicide for religious reasons and said he thinks his brother was chosen by God as an example of why assisted suicide is wrong.

"God chose David as his spokesman with reference to physician-assisted suicide, absolutely," Steve Prueitt said.

David Prueitt was under home hospice care provided by Providence Hospice. His main hospice nurse was not aware that Prueitt chose assisted suicide until after the attempt, his wife said.

Prueitt was taken by ambulance to Providence Portland Hospital for one night about a week before he died, his wife said. She said she called the hospital because he was having a panic attack and accusing her of trying to kill him. His brother arrived to reassure him that was not the case. [...]

But Dr. Kenneth Stevens, vice president of Physicians for Compassionate Care and chairman of the radiation oncology department at Oregon Health & Science University, called Prueitt's death a failed assisted suicide. The most likely reason for such a failure, he said, is that the patient did not consume the complete lethal dose.

"We've always been concerned that the dose would not always be lethal and that there would be complications. In this situation, living is considered a complication."

It's all the awful things about this barbaric practice wrapped up in one: the vulnerable patient being murdered against his will; the doctors who now view his life as a failure rather than his death; the time remaining to him; etc., etc., etc.

Posted by Orrin Judd at March 12, 2005 8:41 AM