Story #13: Prayer for Those in a Coma [1] Posted 02 Mar 2022
This is one story in a series of 15 on End of Life.
My second grandmother, my father’s mother, was a widow well into her eighties. She had become very frail in the last few years, and had begun to prepare for her death. Before going into surgery for a bowel obstruction, she’d made out a Living Will, requesting to dispense with any artificial means of life support if she were dying. During the surgery, she did die, and was eventually resuscitated, but she came out with severe, irreparable brain damage. She lay in an unresponsive coma for days, connected to every means of life support, with a respirator going constantly and a monitor tracking every heartbeat. My father had pleaded with the doctor to discontinue the life support, showing the written evidence of her wishes, but to no avail.
Complete your reading on Prayer for Those in a Coma
[1] Extracts from Facing Death and Finding Hope:
A Guide to the Emotional and Spiritual Care of the Dying By Christine Longaker, Broadway Books, New York 2001, 262 pp
