If you were hurt badly in an accident and you were on life support...?

and the doc told your family that you were only alive because of life support and you were not likely to ever wake up again... what would you want your family to do?
*pull the plug if this is an option or wait for a while or keep you on it?

I have lived this. My dad. He was a very vibrant man, loved life and loved us dearly. He had so many friends, such a good guy he was. Had a Heart Attack in 2000, he was in a nursing home to recover from his heart attack. Then he had a major stroke. Horrible. I got a call in the middle of the night (why does it always happen then?) rushed to the hospital and my strong, vibrant, loving life Dad was gone then, just his shell survived. It was horrible after that. He had signed a "no recessitation" order but that didn't mean they wouldn't put a tube in him for food. Our family got together and decieded to "pull the plug" he would never have wanted to live that way. He was an outdoors guy, loved being free and loved us. His last words were "I want to be here for my kids as long as possible" Such a difficult decission we had to make in his regards. He never would have came back from that, never would have lived a good, free life.

His life would have been spent in a hosptal bed, looking out the window to the life he would have missed. We decided to let him die peacefully with all of his family with him, and his dignity. We "We pulled the plug" he died quietly in his sleep. The hardest decision I/we have ever had to make. I live with that decision each day of my life. He may have survived the stroke, but he would have basically been non-coherent for the rest of his life. Couldn't do that to him. He was a WW2 vet, family man, proud american. The most awesome person I have ever met in my life. We had to let him go, for him.

Myself? I can only hope someone loves me enough to let me go, not to make me live a non-exsitent life. Let me meet my maker is my answer. No hope, let me go.

Pull the plug on me and use any organs that are still working.

Depends on how likely it was. I mean if there was no chance I'd ever wake up again, then what's the point? Would you really want to spend years upon years of your life as a vegetable? Not being able to move, speak, eat, or even wake up and see your family? What kind of a life is that?

Now, if the doc said it was a 50/50 chance, I'd appreciate it if they'd leave it in for a while and see what happens.

to keep me on life support if i had little or no chance to snap out of it or recover would be a burden to my family. I would want them pull the plug if it came down to this.

I would rather that they pulled the plug and use my organs for donating to others.

Pull the plug. I have a living will with those instructions. No need for my loved ones to hang around watching me veg.

As a future health care provider, I've discussed this everywhere from ethics classes to my parents, and the best compromise I have is give me one week to see if I recover (not likely) or to give people a chance to say goodbye. After that, pull the plug, give whatever organs and tissues they'll take for donation, and let me go.

I would hate to be a burden on my family and friends. So kiss me good bye and pull the plug.

Keep me on life support. I'll be an optimist and say that as long as I'm not dead yet, the future might hold the technology to make me better. I wouldn't feel like my family had to come see me or anything if they didn't want to - just keep an eye open for ways to improve my situation.

My living will directs my family to pull the plug and donate any and all organs that can be used.

It's the kind of thing that really needs to be put in writing, so if those are your wishes, do everyone (especially yourself) a favor and fill out a living will.

I hope they will pull the plug.

Pull the plug, donate any usable organs, and the rest to
medical research. My family and friends are aware of this,
but I *really* need to get a legal document done. It would
be nice if the deceased's wishes were legally binding and
they didn't have to ask the survivors, but I'm not sure that
even an advance medical directive would provide that :(

PULL THE PLUG!

I would want them to pull the plug...... I do not want to live like that, and neither do I want them to see me living like that. It would just be best for everyone that way. And I would want my organs donated, if possible!!

This is a shitty situation to be stuck in as a family.
As family and friends you know that person, think about what THEY would want? Not what does the family want (because let's face it, we all want our loved ones alive), but what would the person on life support want?
Talk as a family about what to do.
I know what I would do for different members of my family because I talk to them about things like this- It is a nice luxury to have because I don't have to make a decision they have already made it for me.

I would not want to just be kept alive. Let me go.
After the whole Terry Schaivo thing went down my husband and I went to our lawyers and had living wills drawn up. You don't need to worry what you would want you family to do if you make the decision beforehand. It will be difficult enough for them at that point, make your wants known.

i would say if there has been no change in a month to show progress then doubtful so no reason to continue life support family doesnt matter would have paperwork already signed to pull options and let nature take its course

ABSOLUTELY pull the plug!!! Dont waste money on keeping me, as a veggie, alive, ok?
I have a living will which is always in one place so my family knows what to do.. and that I want to donate all of my body to science.. actually, certain parts to specific institutions..

To begin with, this question presupposes that you once were alive in the first place as apposed to you know: just going through the motions, visiting Cleveland as it were as often as you might and spending the preponderance of your adult years up-and-down shifting, over and over again, the endless to-and-fro of your own driveway in something as bourgeois as - oh, let us say for the record - a well-oiled but rusting, 1980 navy-blue camaro.

Life comes with - among other things - a very, very long cord indeed; in short a tough one, too long to pull. Only God (or in my case, your average good-looking blonde on the Saturday night sphree-way) can pull it with any justice for you!

Begging a family member to do it for you seems slightly incestuous to me! Better auto, if you can manage it! Mutual, only if you can't.

A group effort (such as a mob of vigilantes eagerly stocking a Texas lynching tree) takes away some of the pleasure of the muttering of "Mea Culpa" in the court of (Here come da judge!) public opinion.

But time heals all wounds as they say, and the corallory as it applies this case to your question is also true: time festers all wounds, turns you blue, does you in; wait long enough, or if noses could only survive us and...

What's that smell baby?

What smell?

That smell!

That smell. That smell baby is you!

Kill time as they say, and time will kill you, too!

Nature in general doesn't give a Scope's monkey trial about how you go, just as long as you go, go, go!

You are here only because this is true and because composting demands it! There will be curb pick up next Thursday and boxed-up old uncle Matthew is listed on the manifest. Beeep...beeeep...upchunk! Drop! phewwwwwwwwww!

You will be curb-side before long too! Get used to it!

Nature (and vinegar) never planned on any of us staying around longer than the shelf life of your average 1920 three-star bordeau. To paraphrase Burt Bacharat, "Forever is something only true believers can believe in!"

Those in the know choose slash or charged axe.