Jesse Ramirez, Considered a "Vegetable" Like Terri Shiavo, Now on His Way to Recovery

[Pro_Life_News]

By Peter J. SmithCHANDLER, Arizona, June 28, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Written off by doctors as a hopeless “vegetable”, an Arizona man would not now be on his way to recovery from an accident caused by a marital quarrel if not for his family’s unrelenting struggle for his life.The Arizona…

Full article…

 

[joab]

I am thrilled for Jesse. However, the article is misleading in tying Jesse and Terri together. In one case we are talking 10 days and marital discord. In the other we are talking years with no improvement and a husband who refused to admit the obvious for the majority of those years. I work in a nursing home. I value life. I also see time and time again, where medical decisions prolong life artificially. At what point, do we “allow” a person to die and go to Jesus? When have we intervended to much? We have a person in the home who has been there for 30+ years. Staff turns him every 2 hours. He is bathed, tube fed, diapered. He is put into a special chair and wheeled out of his room to “join” in activities. He never moves, moans, etc. At night, he is “put to bed”. 24 hours a day, we turn him, change him, clean him, etc. Without the tube feedings, he would die. Are we helping him or preventing him from God? This is an issue I struggle with.

 

[stbruno]

What about the miracle of the Polish man who was in a comatose state for 19 years? If his wife were not so faithful of his care, I am sure he would not be able to celebrate his awakening either.

 

[joab]

Once again I am happy for that man. What I am trying to figure out is where is the limit? Is there even one? I work in a 150 bed facility. Out of those people, 18 are what we call dolls. Dolls that will wet if you feed them, move only by us moving them, no sounds, etc. These are total care. I am not talking about persons who have been in this state for a little while. I am not talking about persons who have a response to any kind of stimuli. By tube feeding these people, are we artificially keeping them alive and thereby preventing them from meeting God?
We are warehousing them. They receive no visitors, except an occasional dr. or their conservator.
I try to tell myself that somewhere inside is a person who is conversing with God. It helps.

 

[stbruno]

Food and water even administered as a tube feeding is not extraordinary means of life support. Everyone is entitled to food and water. A baby cannot feed itself, are we not suppose to feed it?

Your efforts and those caregivers who provide 24 hour care are being drawn closer to the fact, *that whatsoever they do for the least of my brothers, that you do until me. *Even if you are being paid to do this task, no one told you, that is the type of employment you must do…that is your choice and it is God’s work that you are performing.

Not only are they conversing with the Lord, it may be the Lord surrounded by choirs of angels.

 

[joab]

My dad could have lived a while longer-probably several more months. When he no longer could make his own decisions, the burden fell to my mother. He refused to eat/drink. She made the decision to not have a tube installed. He died 7 days after that decision was made. I had already invested 2 years of my life between my family(husband, 18mo old, 6mo old and we lived 40 miles away on a farm) and taking care of my dad daily so that mom could work. I think of him everyday that I go to work. I know that was the decision he made( he had been clear about his wishes well in advance), but is it the will of God to do this? I sometimes wonder if this question is the reason I keep coming back to the nursing assistant field. I have a degree in accounting but keep coming back to this field. There is something about the (mainly) elderly that keeps grabbing me.
However, we have another"doll" that is 101. She is 60 lbs. Has been in this state for 8 years. It just feels “wrong” that we won’t let her go to her Father.
I will not ever deny the feeding tube, etc. I just have this voice niggling inside me saying “When is enough, enough?”