Dory at Wittenberg Gate has the moving first-person account of a severely brain-damaged man who survived being removed from a ventilator and is now treasuring every day of life. It's not what you'd expect—he harbors no grudge against his wife for thinking she was following his wishes by having him taken off the machine. But he now realizes it is better to live than to die:
I was estimated [upon reviving] to have AT BEST the mental abilities of a toddler. I was one an EXTREMELY smart man but did not type much as a toddler! Due to my "diffuse axonal" brain injury I have forgotten most of my past. A court already declared me incompetent and my LOVING wife is now my guardian. She is surrendering her life to ministry. I may have said that I wouldn't want to live as a vegetable as my wife said I had. How many would actually choose living years on a machine over a painless death! My wife never lies and would not say I chose to be disconnected if I had not!...Read the whole thing.
One of the leading causes of death in paraplegics is suicide! Every day I choose to live! I may have at one time felt living connected to a machine was worse than death, but I had never tried it! I have now! I have lived in a vegetative state! Although I hope to just die quickly with no pain, I now choose to live by ANY means God provides.
