More than a decade after regretting the delay in withdrawing her mother's life support, writer Tara McClellan McAndrew told her son she trusts him to make future medical decisions about her care; choices guided by love and the best information, she said, are right.
McAndrew's mother suffered a ruptured aorta and underwent a seven-hour operation. During surgery, her carotid artery ruptured, and she suffered a heart attack and stroke. Doctors later said her chances of living a normal life were low, even if she emerged from the coma. McAndrew and her father withdrew life support; her mother breathed on her own for an hour before dying peacefully.
McAndrew said she had relied on medical advice while exhausted and later wondered why she had not asked harder questions sooner. She and her son had discussed resuscitation in general terms, but she could not give instructions for every situation or predict what future medical care might involve. She wanted him to know he could face a difficult choice without enough information, as she had.
