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See the difference
Posted by Raven on March 18th, 2005
This is someone on LIFE SUPPORT. See the ventilator and tubing go into mouth…this is INTUBATION and this person is depending upon a machine to breathe.
This is another image of someone on LIFE SUPPORT. Look at all the pumps (red,white & blue) moving all your body fluids to where they need to be… next to the bed on floor…IV’s, central and PIC lines, venous flow monitors and O2 monitors and heart monitors…EKG probes and feet in booties to prevent skin breakdown…trach and rebreather masks… this is true life support. I know; I work with this stuff all the time.
And this is ALL that Terri has. No machines. No breathing devices…Just a tube. That goes into her stomach…water and formula get poured into this tube via a syringe.
March 18th, 2005 at 9:38 am
Disclosure:::Technically speaking this image of TUBE is a PEG tube and not a GTUBE. But they are basically the same and it shows the point. The PEG tube goes into a different part of the intestine, while a G TUBE goes directly into the stomach. Terri has a G TUBE.
March 18th, 2005 at 9:44 am
What really troubles me about this is…this is becoming an argument about her being on life support. What about all those thousands of people who are? Don’t they have the right to life as well?
March 18th, 2005 at 9:52 am
Yes they do. But hate to say it but many have been silently removed from all the machines, based upon family wishes and not written directives. Some people will live on these machines for days, weeks, months and others YEARS. Those who are on the machines are far worse off then Terri is…
And yes, it costs a lot more money to keep the machines humming than a g tube in place. Get advanced directives in place; think about what you would want.
And tell everyone you know…give someone YOU trust control over your medical decisions if you can’t make them. Contact your doctor to set this all up. It’s easy and free and saves everyone all of THIS agony.
March 22nd, 2005 at 10:26 am
Nancy Cruzan 1983
After a 1983 automobile accident, Nancy Cruzan, age 24, was resuscitated by paramedics into a persistent vegetative state and remained that way for seven years. She could breath on her own and required only a feeding tube.