KILL HIM, WE NEED THE BED (via Jim Yates):

The toughest decision: Fairfax man awoke from coma after his wife refused to take him off life support (Richard Halstead, 3/27/05, Marin Independent Journal)

Areme Szemanski's husband Gene had been in a coma at Marin General Hospital for 31 days when she was summoned to a conference with a team of doctors, nurses and his case manager.

They told her there was nothing more they could do for her husband, who fell off the roof of his Fairfax house on April 13, 2000, while making repairs. They wanted to take him off life support.

"They didn't give me an option," Areme Szemanski said. "Oh no, no options. They were telling me they have to switch off the machine."

When she asked for more time, maybe 15 days, Szemanski said the case manager became aggressive. The manager asked her if she thought her husband would like being paralyzed, to not be able to speak, hear or see.

"You know, she was very strong," Szemanski said. "There was no compassion. Nothing. It was more like an order, and you have to follow the order."

Szemanski refused to grant permission to turn off her husband's ventilator after the conference on May 14, 2000. Instead, she spent long hours at the hospital talking to her husband and playing music for him. Then, eight days after the conference, on his wife's birthday, Gene Szemanski opened his eyes and smiled at his wife. Eventually, he would make virtually a complete recovery.

Sometimes it's better to scratch the finger than to pull the trigger.

Posted by Orrin Judd at March 27, 2005 9:44 PM