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Akakoji

(425 posts)
21. Thanks
Fri Oct 24, 2025, 05:23 AM
Friday

I’ve had patients live for many years after strokes, sometimes a decade of bed care and all but total paralysis. Thankfully, my mom died right after I had a very long conversation with her about her life. I called my younger brother afterwards and told him to rush over and talk with her because she sounded like she knew she was going to die. He was tired, too long to drive after a days work. Getting off the couch she had a massive stroke, tried to walk up a few steps and dropped dead. I’d say 60 seconds. I was grateful. My younger brother spent several years in intensive therapy after my dad called him and he came and saw her after she had been dead for at least four hours. Unrecognizable. Now he insists on taking care of my dad who has had at least a dozen major heart attacks. No bowel control at all. But he doesn’t want to die. He’s not my patient but I can say fifty years ago he would have been put in hospice care, now incredibly expensive, and lasted a very short time. He’s 104 years old. I say if he wants to live we should do what we can to make him happy. That includes lots of meds that are quickly draining his life savings. And my brother’s.

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