Holy hell. I can't imagine what his life has been like. I wonder how many people have had the "plug pulled" but were actually alive?
That sounds like complete hell. Being stuck inside your own head, unable to say or do anything for 23 years? I can't even begin to imagine what that would be like. It's actually unnerving just to think about...how does a person keep their sanity?
I'm no House, but wouldn't they still be alive? When you're in a vegetative state, the machines simply keep you alive. If you are simply paralyzed...nothing would happen, you'd be alive.
Plus, it would be so damn boring - you've got to figure that most hours of most days, he was just lying there with nobody in the room at all, just listening to the machines hum and the fluids drip, drip, drip... barfo
As trite or superficial as that word makes it sound, the "boredom" is exactly what I meant. Humans really aren't wired to simply do nothing but think for long stretches (by which I mean many hours at a time). Doing it for several days or weeks at a stretch is already mind-boggling to me, but I've heard of it done at certain meditative retreats. Doing it for more than two decades...with almost no inputs at all...I honestly cannot fathom it.
In Parkinson's Disease, you become paralyzed. Your mind works fine. You can't roll over. Someone has to replace your diapers and lift you so they can replace the soaked sheets. I took care of my mother, initials jlprk, for 4 years until my jealous brother and father drove me out of there. She was never lifted out of her bed for her remaining 2 years. No one else cared. I have never renewed my career since. There are many miserable lives that would make miserable movies.
When they pull the plug it's to stop the machines from feeding you, from giving you water, and then you starve to death. I do not recall if they pump you full of morphine to limit the pain, but it's not a simple case of 'they pull the plug and see you're still alive and be like "OH"'. Assisted suicide is another beast from pulling the plug on people in vegetative comas.
Damn. I knew when I wrote "pull the plug" and left it at that it would give the wrong idea. I had actually in my initial writing put in an explanation, but decided it made the sentence too muddled. By "pulling the plug" what I meant was they will generally deprive you of food and water. You generally die of dehydration before starvation, but it can't be a fun way to go. I apologize for the confusion and I appreciate you giving me the opportunity to clarify it. It was my fault because I used a term generally meant for something else.
There's a reason why prisoners in supermax facilities, with a minimum of human contact, go insane. I have to think there's some kind of lasting mental/emotional damage. I put myself in his position just for a moment, and I couldn't bear the thought of it.
this board is pretty much my only way of staying sane at work. nobody to talk to most of the day. machines don't talk to me.... yet
You clearly have not mastered the art of holding a conversation with inanimate objects like I have. Telling a toaster why eggos are delicious is a way to pass the time.
All of them were actually alive. Otherwise there would be no plug-pulling required to end their lives. How many would have eventually recovered, given the chance, is unknown. When this happens in our country, only the very wealthy have the option of leaving the plug in long enough to find out.
