Humane Euthanasia?
Age: 51
Sex: F
Height: 5'4
Weight: 165
Race: White
Duration of complaint: 2 weeks
Location: Orlando
Any existing relevant medical issues: High Blood Pressure
Current medications: A lot. I don't know the names of all the meds my mother is on.
I really wish I didn't have to be thinking about this, but basically, my mother had a rare reaction to one of her medications and suffered multiple hemorrhagic strokes all over her brain a few weeks ago while trying to recover from a craniotomy. She's been on life support ever since. They placed long term breathing and feeding tubes. She hasn't spoken since her second brain surgery on 5/5 and it is now 5/21. She unevenly opens her eyes for like 10-20 mins every once in a while, but we can tell she can't really see. They're usually really unfocused, sometimes even slightly walleyed, and she doesn't flinch or blink when a nurse checks her threat response. Sometimes she coughs, and it doesn't look comfortable. Sometimes she has her tongue out. I clean drool off her face. The nurses clean her when she has a bowel movement.
What I mean to say is, this is no way to live. From my perspective, its torture. I would never want to be in her situation. Being connected to tubes and machines and having no ability to clean yourself or speak for yourself, having no dignity, to me its a fate worse than death. Now— I truly am still hoping for a miracle. And I really wanna see if she can make some progress in the coming months. I spend hours in the ICU with her every day playing music she likes. I've been reading books out loud to her that she used to read with me when I was a kid. I talk to her about my life. I'm just hoping to stimulate her brain somehow. But...what if a year passes and she still doesn't make much progress? Do we just keep her like this forever? Is there a way for the family to elect to give her some type of drug that just makes her pass peacefully?
The hospital case worker gave us a packet of info on hospitals nearby for rehabilitation for people with "catastrophic illness" My heart hurts so bad thinking about moving her there, going back to work, and only spending time with her a few times a week. I know I'm going to zone out at work thinking about her alone in that room, connected to all the tubes.
I'm too afraid to ask this 'humane euthanasia' question to the case worker or any of the nurses because my mom is always in the room with us and I'm worried she can hear. I want to frame things positively when I'm around her to give her her best chance at healing. I always say things like "you're gonna keep getting better" to her, but the truth is, the doctors don't really seem to think so.
TLDR: If a person is totally incapacitated for over a year and does not show signs of progress, can the family elect to let them die with dignity instead of just being kept alive by machines but not really living life?