If there was reasonable hope I would hock everything I own, go massively into debt and try to give them time.

I really don't think I could honestly answer without actually being in such a situation. Assuming I was faced with such a choice, I would like to think that I would make my decision based more on what I thought my loved one wanted rather than my own needs and desires.

I asked them to turn my Fathers off, they said he would only last two hours ,His brain had gone and he was paralysed. He lived another five months. I asked them to put my husband on life support and they refused although his death was very sudden and it was their mix up that caused it to be much earlier than it could have been.

I would not answer right away & I would get numerous opinions on the possible outcome...I would talk to my family & hope we could decide as a family on the right choice but I would not make a hasty decision so they might be on life support for a while & I would only turn it off if they were gonna be a vegetable or if they where gonna be on it forever ( I would not consider the cost at all)

The only other adult I cared about in my life has already died. And she had a DNR.

That's a tough one.I guess after a certain time period,if they haven't come out of it,they are just a living body,with no concious brain funtioning,still who is to say that they are not 'Alive'.I don't know.I would keep them here,I guess,not for MYSELF,but they may not want to die.They couldn't tell me either way if they had any awareness.To me,this is one of the most troubling topics to deal with,and one of the ultimate moral issues.Who is to say what is right in this instance? I don't blame or judge anyone for what they'd do for this,but I myself,think that I would keep them alive,for lack of knowing what they are capable of feeling and knowing.I was in a coma for two days once over medication that was administered to me.I was aware of everything around me,but my body felt weak and sleepy,like I was paralized.I moved occassionally on the second day,then finially came out.Iyt was almost like a relaxing deep-sleep dream.Ultimately,it is the family's decision.That's all I have to say.*+++++*

do whatever they asked to do - or if it's up to me i would pull the plug

A Predictor of Coma Survival A little-understood part of the brain may provide a way to predict whether patients can wake up from their comas. The human brain is still largely an unsolved mystery. We only marginally understand how it works and are even less able to predict how it will behave in certain situations. One of the most frustrating of those situations is the coma. Anecdotes abound of people in comas who unexpectedly wake from them, much to their doctors' surprise. But what if doctors could get ahead of that surprise with a predictor of whether or not a patient will regain consciousness? A team of Belgian scientists have proposed just such a clue. It's called the default network. If the brain on a whole is one of the least understood parts of the human anatomy, the default network may be the least of the least. You can think of it as like the background processes in a computer: always running or on standby to accept your input or figure calculations. The default network is thought by some to be responsible for daydreaming, taking over when your conscious thought wanders. And it's a part of the brain that can stay active even when the brain has sustained a severe injury, which is why the Belgian researchers were attracted to it. They found the default network's activity could be measured in people with brain injuries in order to predict whether they would return from their comas. Typically, doctors measure brain activity on the whole, but can have a hard time coming to a diagnosis when activity is high while the patient is unconscious. By measuring the default network, the Belgian scientists were able to reach more accurate conclusions. The work is still very much in its preliminary stages. The study group was exceptionally small and the exact nature of the default network is still very much a matter of controversy, but the preliminary results are pointing at things which may ultimately prove to be valuable. Management of the unconscious patient First of all, make sure quickly that they are unconscious, and not just asleep. Often, someone else has already done this for you. Next, the primary care is EXACTLY the same as Basic Life Support – AIRWAY, BREATHING, CIRCULATION. A patient who is unconscious is at a very high risk of compounding their problems by adding to them by asphyxia, leading to death. When consciousness is lost, the tongue usually falls back in the pharynx and obstructs the airway. The cough reflex is lost, and blood or regurgitated stomach contents are often aspirated into the lungs. Therefore, the unconscious patient must have their airway supported by tilting the head and lifting the chin ( sometimes with the help of an oral or nasal airway ), and by placing them into the coma position to prevent aspiration. They must be checked frequently to make sure they are breathing freely, by: Look – watch the chest moving easily, without the use of accessory muscles or the abdomen heaving. Listen – with you ear at the patient mouth, or with a stethescope Feel – the flow of air at the mouth with your hand or cheek, and chest or abdominal movements. Alternatively, they may have an endotracheal tube placed, preferably by an anaesthetist. All unconscious patients should be given supplemental oxygen therapy at a high concentration. VERY FEW PATIENTS HAVE END STAGE OBSTRUCTIVE AIRWAYS DISEASE AS THE CAUSE OF THEIR COMA. Therefore, give more than 24% oxygen !!! The circulation in the unconscious patient often requires support, and so early good intravenous access is required, with measuring of the pulse and blood pressure and appropriate treatment. Diagnosis If available, the history from relatives or ambulance staff will often give all the necessary clues needed to make a provisional diagnosis of the cause of unconsciousness. However, if they are a pyrexial, depressed epileptic diabetic that has been unwell recently and then fallen down stairs……….. Making a diagnosis is important, because it will direct appropriate therapy. However, it does not reduce the need for generic supportive care, such as that offered on intensive care. Sometimes, the diagnosis allows the withdrawal of care, if the cause of coma is untreatable and the brain damage irreversible. Evaluation The comatose patient should be physically examined for any helpful signs, such as lumps on the head and non blanching rashes. The system which will be examined most intently ( and often provides the least information) is the nervous system. There are certain parts of the central nervous system which are easy to examine, including the eyes and reflexes, but other information is provided by the posture and muscle tone, and the respiratory pattern. The eyes do give useful information – pupil size and equality, and direction of gaze. A truly comatose patient is deeply unconscious, with no response to pain. However, it is often found that patients are not completely unconscious, and so can be categorised onto a point on a "coma scale". Here is an example of a simple 5 point scale: 1 = fully awake 2 = conscious but drowsy 3 = unconscious but responsive to pain with purposeful movement e.g. flexion/withdrawal 4 = unconscious but responding to pain by extension 5 = unconscious and unresponsive to pain This scale gives a simple measure of the degree of unconsciousness, but disregards other information that may be available. The most commonly used complex scale, using three groups of observations, is the Glasgow Coma Score, which was originally suggested for the assessment of head injury patients. This looks at eye activity, verbal and motor responses, and assigns points for each to give a composite score, 3 being deeply unconscious and 15 being fully conscious: POINTS Best motor response Movement in response to command 6 Localizes pain 5 Withdraws from pain 4 Flexes in response to pain 3 Extends in response to pain 2 No response 1 Best verbal response Fully orientated 5 Confused 4 Inappropriate words 3 Incomprehensible sounds 2 No response 1 Best eye response Eyes open spontaneously 4 Eyes open to command 3 Eyes open in response to pain 2 Eyes remain closed 1 Next time you and your friends get back from the pub, why not check each others coma score? These scales and scores are most useful in allowing the assessment of changing levels of consciousness, either improvement or deterioration. A worsening of the GCS in a head injured patient indicates the need for urgent neurosurgical intervention. There are other coma scales, which apply to specific types of coma, such as that found in hepatic failure: Stage 1: impaired personality or thinking. EEG usually normal Stage 2: confusion, abnormal sleep and drowsiness. Asterixis and increased reflexes, with plantar responses up or down. EEG abnormal. Stage 3: marked confusion, with inability to perform fine movement. Responds to painful stimuli Stage 4: comatose with depressed reflexes These problems in hepatic failure are caused by cerebral oedema, due to problems such as hypoglycaemia, hyponatraemia, hypokalaemia, hypothermia, respiratory and renal failure. Further Management of the comatose patient This care will often be delivered in a specialist unit, usually an intensive care/therapy unit. Long term management involves consideration of the problems suffered by a patient lying still for very prolonged periods with no protective reflexes. These include pressure area care care of the mouth, eyes and skin physiotherapy to protect muscles and joints risks of deep vein thrombosis risks of stress ulceration of the stomach nutrition and fluid balance urinary catheterization monitoring of the CVS infection control maintenance of adequate oxygenation, with the assistance of artificial ventilation.