Hospitals will keep you alive despite knowing you won't recover

My mother had cirrhosis of the liver and was hospitalized. Her liver was failing and her body was sick and weak from the disease.

In a matter of two weeks, her liver and kidneys failed. Her lungs and heart were intensely stressed and weakened as a result. She spent most of her time unconscious but when she was awake she would squeeze my hand - and that of others - while she had a tube in her mouth and was unable to speak.

My mother was deemed no longer a candidate for a transplant and after grilling the doctors face-to-face they admitted she had no chance at any quality of life: if she was able to get a transplant, she would have been confined to a wheelchair and on dialysis for many years, if not for the rest of her life.

I testified in front of a group of at least 12 people - doctors, nurses, the hospital's lawyer, etc. and told them I want all support removed. After a day of deliberation, they relented.

When they turned off the machines, stopped the medications and took all the tubes out of my mother, she lasted just 20 minutes, passing away peacefully from heart failure. It was clear she was being kept alive in an almost vegetable-like state thanks to machines and medication.

My point is that hospitals will let you suffer in agony and keep you hanging on - with better technology this will only increase - rather than letting you pass away with less pain or none at all.

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