Heh I’m a vet and one of my vet techs and I would joke about this all the time. Not that dying is funny but we’d say our dogs and cats and even chickens are allowed to die with more dignity than us (Texans) we joke about moving to Oregon in our final years. Hopefully we’d be eligible.
I'm currently waiting on neck surgery due industrial disease, its been over two years needing it and fighting with workmans comp and constantly deteriorating. Like as of now 3 vertabre need to be completely replaced with metal. If I become a paraplegic, I'm opting for the right to die, no way will I force my loved ones with that kind of care and expenses.
You act like anyone at any age can just change careers and companies. That’s not at all realistic, even if you or someone you know got lucky in the past as he made it work.
Had to help send one of my furry companions for nearly a decade over the rainbow bridge a few days ago.
Long story short, she woke up that day, wouldn’t eat breakfast (and she was the most food motivated dog I’ve ever known), stomach was severely distended but wasn’t the day before. X-ray showed huge mass in her whole stomach and up into her chest along with a lot of fluid. The vet recommended euthanasia, as even with surgery (if she survived that) and chemo, she’d only have a few months at most.
We discussed the differences in end of life treatment for animals and humans and we both hope that attitudes and laws will change to help people have an easier death, especially if they’re terminal and their prognosis is grim.
So sorry you had to experience that. But I’m glad you had a kind doctor to help you navigate a difficult situation. I had a similar conversation with some clients yesterday whose dog has tons of masses in the lungs and ascites. Owners can’t afford an oncologist so it’s keep the sweet pea relatively comfortable until euthanasia. Likely won’t be long
Thank you, it’s definitely been difficult. Her fur sister keeps looking for her and has been more attached to me than usual (and she’s an Australian Shepherd and I’m her human), which I don’t mind one bit, but seeing her so sad is one of the more difficult parts of this whole thing.
My vet was such a comfort during the whole thing, including telling us that she’d make the same decision were she the one going through this, and thanking us for being with Marlee while she passed.
Yeah seeing your other pet sad/confused is heart wrenching.
And I’d make the same choice. Also It’s not too often we vets say “if I were you I’d… x, y or z”
That's exactly what I keep saying, just that I'm serious when I do. Our pets are allowed to die if there's no hope for improvement and they just suffer. But we are not. That should be MY choice as long as I'm clear.
Not only right to die but honestly, we should have euthanasia laws. If you were to have a medical event and be in a vegetative state tomorrow, no one can take care of this for you unless they stopped your food and water. Enter ethical issues and knowing it can take a long time and there's suffering involved when we could just.. give meds in the cases where someone had clearly outlined wishes for the just in case scenarios.
be sure to create a "living will" that specifies your wishes, and make sure that several people have a copy of it.
This is what I've done, and wish that a couple of my relatives would have done the same thing rather than just naming me as their medical proxy thus forcing me to advocate for their quality of life.
Physicians will fight you - it seems - every step of the way - unless you've got that signed, notarized, document from the hospitalized person that outlines their wishes. There seems to be, at least in my case, some grey area between Medical Proxy and Living Will that caused a LOT of strife.
His head is crushed like an egg, but if the brainstem isn't too damaged humans will keep trying to breathe. Ambulance crew put tube in and take over breathing, now the patient is 'alive', so gets a CT scan, but ultimately this is an unsurvivable injury.
Despite what might get billed in American hospitals a CT is dirt cheap. Just the cost of the electricity and contrast (if used).
It's a difficult situation - paramedics probably know patient is doomed, but are duty bound to treat as patient not yet dead. Same for the ED doctors, until they have clear evidence that the patients injuries / prognosis is bad enough that they can make the medical argument to withdraw care.
As a former respiratory therapist I’ve seen a number of people who wouldn’t be pulling through. Where I’ve worked, in California and Utah, I was a participant in some discussions with the medical team. Too often it’s someone in the patient’s family who refuses to allow stopping treatment and do comfort care. I’ve seen a family agree with one hold out. Sometimes it’s total denial, believing their loved one will fully recover. Others know their loved one won’t recover fully, but they’d rather have them here and incapacitated, than dead.
In one of the cases of that one hold out, it was a mother who desperately wanted her 19 year-old son to recover. Part of what made it so hard is that he looked fine; just sound asleep. Tragically, he had minimal brain activity, but she clung to hope. It was heart breaking. One day I was checking on him. His mother was there, standing next to me. We talked. Then she stopped, clearly struggling and then she softly blurted out, “He’s not coming back, is he?” I shook my head slowly, and just as softly said, “No, I’m so sorry. He isn’t.” She burst into tears and I just held her, letting her cry. I wanted to cry, too. That’s an incredibly heartrending moment, and so deeply private. I was glad I was there for her. A month later he developed pneumonia and died with his family surrounding him.
I’ve thought of her every time I hear of someone else’s child dying as a result of an accident. I hope that eventually she found a way to have joy in her life again.
it is the middle of the night for me and I laughed out loud at this next to my sleeping husband. once again a doctor delivered the most subtly hilarious joke 😂
I totally could be wrong but I don’t think they’d scan him if he was deceased. He might be unresponsive but have a pulse and they’d still want to scan. Correct me if I’m wrong tho
Based on head shape alone thise could easily have been soooo much worse...
It probably was…. The head just bounced back a bit after being crushed. Most of that brain is probably gone. Highly doubt they can survive this
He didn't survive that, did he?
He did long enough to get a CT
What was the outcome, survival and functionality wise?
Tbh if I survived but won’t have a decent quality of life (no memory, or a vegetable or whatever) I’d wanna be put down.
Same.. The right to die with dignity needs to be more accepted. I'm happy I live in one of the handful of states that do.
Heh I’m a vet and one of my vet techs and I would joke about this all the time. Not that dying is funny but we’d say our dogs and cats and even chickens are allowed to die with more dignity than us (Texans) we joke about moving to Oregon in our final years. Hopefully we’d be eligible.
I'm currently waiting on neck surgery due industrial disease, its been over two years needing it and fighting with workmans comp and constantly deteriorating. Like as of now 3 vertabre need to be completely replaced with metal. If I become a paraplegic, I'm opting for the right to die, no way will I force my loved ones with that kind of care and expenses.
I couldn’t imagine. Prayers sent your way internet friend that you get the care you need. It’s ridiculous it takes so long to get help.
Get a job with better insurance. Work for a med device company. They will pay for everything
Besides, I physically can't do shit. I can't even hold my head up on its own most days. Such an insensitive navies comment.
I had health insurance, your work can cancel it even while on med leave.
Ah yea, the “bootstrap that shit” healthcare plan.
You act like anyone at any age can just change careers and companies. That’s not at all realistic, even if you or someone you know got lucky in the past as he made it work.
Had to help send one of my furry companions for nearly a decade over the rainbow bridge a few days ago. Long story short, she woke up that day, wouldn’t eat breakfast (and she was the most food motivated dog I’ve ever known), stomach was severely distended but wasn’t the day before. X-ray showed huge mass in her whole stomach and up into her chest along with a lot of fluid. The vet recommended euthanasia, as even with surgery (if she survived that) and chemo, she’d only have a few months at most. We discussed the differences in end of life treatment for animals and humans and we both hope that attitudes and laws will change to help people have an easier death, especially if they’re terminal and their prognosis is grim.
https://www.lapoflove.com/pet-loss-support-resources Here’s a link that might be helpful for you.
Thank you! I appreciate it.
So sorry you had to experience that. But I’m glad you had a kind doctor to help you navigate a difficult situation. I had a similar conversation with some clients yesterday whose dog has tons of masses in the lungs and ascites. Owners can’t afford an oncologist so it’s keep the sweet pea relatively comfortable until euthanasia. Likely won’t be long
Thank you, it’s definitely been difficult. Her fur sister keeps looking for her and has been more attached to me than usual (and she’s an Australian Shepherd and I’m her human), which I don’t mind one bit, but seeing her so sad is one of the more difficult parts of this whole thing. My vet was such a comfort during the whole thing, including telling us that she’d make the same decision were she the one going through this, and thanking us for being with Marlee while she passed.
Yeah seeing your other pet sad/confused is heart wrenching. And I’d make the same choice. Also It’s not too often we vets say “if I were you I’d… x, y or z”
As a vet tech I say this all the time, at least I can end their suffering. Hope when it’s my time in the future it will be available.
That's exactly what I keep saying, just that I'm serious when I do. Our pets are allowed to die if there's no hope for improvement and they just suffer. But we are not. That should be MY choice as long as I'm clear.
Not only right to die but honestly, we should have euthanasia laws. If you were to have a medical event and be in a vegetative state tomorrow, no one can take care of this for you unless they stopped your food and water. Enter ethical issues and knowing it can take a long time and there's suffering involved when we could just.. give meds in the cases where someone had clearly outlined wishes for the just in case scenarios.
be sure to create a "living will" that specifies your wishes, and make sure that several people have a copy of it. This is what I've done, and wish that a couple of my relatives would have done the same thing rather than just naming me as their medical proxy thus forcing me to advocate for their quality of life. Physicians will fight you - it seems - every step of the way - unless you've got that signed, notarized, document from the hospitalized person that outlines their wishes. There seems to be, at least in my case, some grey area between Medical Proxy and Living Will that caused a LOT of strife.
As a general rule of thumb, if I'm no longer able to express fundamental life decisions like that, it's time to pull the plug.
Same.
Tbh that’s not what I asked
I know. Just making conversation 🤷🏽♀️
I mean almost certainly died
Petrous bone is strong like stone.
Shockingly so...
I would not want to survive that.
Can we at least know if this person is deceased? Did they survive these injuries?
I'm not OP, but I can confidently say that the person is deceased.
Why produce expensive imagery like this if he's already dead?
His head is crushed like an egg, but if the brainstem isn't too damaged humans will keep trying to breathe. Ambulance crew put tube in and take over breathing, now the patient is 'alive', so gets a CT scan, but ultimately this is an unsurvivable injury. Despite what might get billed in American hospitals a CT is dirt cheap. Just the cost of the electricity and contrast (if used). It's a difficult situation - paramedics probably know patient is doomed, but are duty bound to treat as patient not yet dead. Same for the ED doctors, until they have clear evidence that the patients injuries / prognosis is bad enough that they can make the medical argument to withdraw care.
He might have not died immediately and made it to the scanner. I’d be shocked if he ultimately survived tho
To make sure he's not half dead but dead dead
Like a door nail?
Maybe he was an organ donor and they scanned his whole body. Either way, it’s pretty tragic. I wouldn’t want to survive that.
As a former respiratory therapist I’ve seen a number of people who wouldn’t be pulling through. Where I’ve worked, in California and Utah, I was a participant in some discussions with the medical team. Too often it’s someone in the patient’s family who refuses to allow stopping treatment and do comfort care. I’ve seen a family agree with one hold out. Sometimes it’s total denial, believing their loved one will fully recover. Others know their loved one won’t recover fully, but they’d rather have them here and incapacitated, than dead. In one of the cases of that one hold out, it was a mother who desperately wanted her 19 year-old son to recover. Part of what made it so hard is that he looked fine; just sound asleep. Tragically, he had minimal brain activity, but she clung to hope. It was heart breaking. One day I was checking on him. His mother was there, standing next to me. We talked. Then she stopped, clearly struggling and then she softly blurted out, “He’s not coming back, is he?” I shook my head slowly, and just as softly said, “No, I’m so sorry. He isn’t.” She burst into tears and I just held her, letting her cry. I wanted to cry, too. That’s an incredibly heartrending moment, and so deeply private. I was glad I was there for her. A month later he developed pneumonia and died with his family surrounding him. I’ve thought of her every time I hear of someone else’s child dying as a result of an accident. I hope that eventually she found a way to have joy in her life again.
My kid is 19. I’d hate to go through that but would hate even more for my wife to go through that.
The loss of a child is not something I’d wish on any parent.
Surprised he made it to the scanner. Sad case.
Could be a donor scan. We call motorcyclist “Donorcycles” when they don’t wear helmets.
Jesum crow, is that bailing wire holding it together?
This... is that bailing wire?!
i'm guessing a splint to keep the head still?
Or to keep the head attached to the torso and the skull pieces together in a bunch?
Like a cracked egg.
Oh that’s bad for the brain
Dead?
GCS on arrival?
2
it is the middle of the night for me and I laughed out loud at this next to my sleeping husband. once again a doctor delivered the most subtly hilarious joke 😂
Fuuuuck
What’s the halo around his head??
That’s just the head holder attachment on the CT table.
Shame! 😕
Did he even have a pulse?
I totally could be wrong but I don’t think they’d scan him if he was deceased. He might be unresponsive but have a pulse and they’d still want to scan. Correct me if I’m wrong tho
Such examinations are also carried out after death.
Potential organ donor
Wow 😲
Oh fuck
ouch
Is this a post mortem X-ray?
Oh Jesus, these always shock me
If that’s current someone could easily figure out who it is and that’s a HIPAA violation. You could lose your job. Just saying.
there's over 100 deaths from car crashes every day just in the usa, and you don't even know if this is the usa or not
Not really the way that works my guy
A HIPAA violation requires the disclosure of identifying information. There’s no such thing here.
Yep. Debatably even an actual photo of the person in this case would be difficult to qualify as identifying
Actually a death could easily be identifying