Okay, sorry to be a post-whore, but
here's a related article, and the part I've bolded really creeped me out:
Terry "Chuck" Hagel, Hudson
Died March 3 at age 49
Personal history: Carpet cleaner and longtime resident of Hudson. Survived by his parents, Mary and Norman Hagel, two sisters, a brother and a nephew.
Medical problems:
Undiagnosed hepatitis-C liver damage, probably stemming from a tattoo, complicated by surgery from leg fracture that became infected. Was in hospital for weight loss, nausea and swollen stomach when liver capacity plummeted. He could not swallow and was moved to hospice.
End-of-life wishes: Did not have a living will. Occasionally showed signs in hospice that he understood what people were saying, but could not communicate verbally with family.
Family decisions: Based on doctor advice that nothing could be done, agreed to hospice care and no feeding tube. He died after eight days. "We didn't want another Terri Schiavo case, keeping someone alive who is not supposed to be." Later, family members had second thoughts.
Source of information: Sister Kathleen Svehla, who now wonders if the family should have inserted the feeding tube to see if her brother might improve.
He sucked on the sponge when nurses swabbed his lips and his stomach growled. "I felt like, maybe, he was saying, "Help me. I want out. I'm so thirsty. I'm so hungry.' Watching him there for eight days was heartbreaking." Svehla and other family members are now thinking about changing their living wills so feeding tubes will be maintained.
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