Pauline update

On Saturday, 6/7, Ron, Pauline's husband, was transferred from the hospital in Warsaw to Lutheran Hospital in Fort Wayne.
In Warsaw, he was taken off the ventilator (life support) and became so distressed, the doctor told Pauline he wouldn't live more than 6 hours if they didn't put him back on life support. So, they did and then sent him by ambulance to Fort Wayne "because they have better equipment and doctors" Pauline was told.

Pauline called me and asked me to be there when the ambulance arrived since she could not get there until later. Tammy and I were at the hospital when the ambulance arrived. We talked to the doctor, lung specialist..who told us Ron would need a tracheostomy. He had just finished talking to us when Pauline and Rhonda with her husband Bill, showed up. So the doctor went all through it again. The doctor said a lot of things...mainly that nobody could know for sure if Ron will live or not...but definitely not without the trach.

Monday, Pauline got to the hospital after the doctor had been and gone. She found Ron very swollen, clammy and running a temperature. Pauline became very agitated and the nurses called the doctor to come back and talk to her. Again, the doctor told her he wasn't God...and could not tell her for sure if Ron will live or not, even with the trach....but the trach is his only chance. He is having the trach put in this afternoon. I will go to the hospital to be with Pauline for this.

Pauline is understandably upset and worried sick. She keeps saying she wishes they had never put Ron on life support. He had filled out a living will a couple years ago stating he did not ever want to be on life support.

I'm not sure if Warsaw hospital asked her ahead of time...when she first took Ron to ER...or if they just went ahead and put him on the ventilator. But on Saturday morning when they removed it, they did give her a choice. Did she make the right decision? I don't know. It was against Ron's stated wishes, yet, in the crisis and the emotions of the moment, she chose life support. She says she thought it was only temporary and they could reverse the effects of the sleep apnea and he could be taken off the ventiator successfully.

So...how important is it that we fill out a living will if our family, in a high stress emotional moment can opt for the life-support?

Personally, given the information she had, I think she made the right decision. The doctor thought...or let her believe anyway...that the ventilator was only a temporary measure. I'm sure most of us would choose life support if there was a chance we could get well. Say, if you had pneumonia and there was a chance of curing it with the help of a ventilator. I know I don't want to be on life-support if there's no chance I'll be well again, but if it's merely a tool to make you well, of course you should use it.