39-Death panels part 10

39-Death panels, advanced directives, a dream, and a miracle

by Jaxon Cohen

Part 10: The Miracle

Despite the rat poison, despite the ICD, despite the pneumonia, despite my inadequacies, in the end the hospital’s Pasture would say, “Jaxon, that was the most peaceful passing I’ve ever seen.” Why? Pure luck? Pure fate? Pure preparation? None of the above? All I know is that if it were left up to the law or technology, she would have said something else. Imagine, my whole life is crumbling before my eyes. I am standing next to his dying body, prepared with his documents to precede to the last stage when the doctors refuse to end the end. In spite of the dream’s warning, I was struck out of the blue for the second time. What was the first? The infection itself. My father did not shown a single symptom of even a slight cold let alone full-blown pneumonia prior to the crash. The day before, the day after the dream, he appeared as healthy as he’d been that year.

Well, there was the one incident a few weeks prior. A simple contagion sent him to the ER for a catheter and some antibiotics. They checked him out. They listened to his lungs, took his temp, his pressure, etc. Other than the localized pathogen, he was fine and quickly recovered. But I often wonder if this wasn't the hidden trigger. Could the month long treatment of antibiotics have suppressed the native bacterium in his lungs to a point where invasive species turned those impacted layers of aspirated material into a conflagration of disease?

When I took the oxygen from him, after we said our goodbyes, he passed just as in the dream. Only reality is complicated, persistent, and infinity messy. Surrounding my father’s deathbed were lawyers, administrators, doctors, my doctor friend, and the Pasture. As the interval between breaths reached past seconds, the lawyers had the doctors tell me that the ICD keeping his heart going would not be turned off because the durable power of attorney my father created was inadequate: one or two words were missing in one or two places. Because he failed to include any mention of a specific medical directive within the document, the lawyers did not feel comfortable allowing the tech to turn off the ICD on my behest until all of his eleven surviving children were contacted and contracted with consent.

If that thing had been at full power, I can't imagine the Frankenstein-like horror as the paddles of this mindless, miniature, medical robot repeatedly jolted my father in and out of existence without the humanity to simply let go. It had one job: keep my father's heart beating. How long could the shifting have lasted? To be honest, I've never really thought it through because reality was different. As the crowd hotly discussed the limits of their positions, I vaguely remembered the doughnut-shaped magnet, stuck to the refrigerator, and quietly wished I had it. In this moment, I would have relished fulfilling my original role: deactivate the faulty unit.

Then the miracle. “Wait,” the tech said. “Yes,” the doctor confirmed. “What?” I questioned. “Jaxon, your father has passed,” the Pasture said.

My dad was a noble, honorable, diligent attorney but a far better father to me and I only hope I served him well as a devoted son. He couldn’t protect us in that last moment because of recent changes to the law and my inability to see the value in a simple magnet. The best of a great man was not good enough. What happened that day was a wonderful mysterious coincidence, or if you will, a miracle. That battery died years before it should have. Was it faulty? If so, then this was one time when a serious cooperate mistake became a blessing instead of a lawsuit.

Of course, those were different days, before Washington created an avenue for standardized, results-oriented care. Large employers provide healthcare because it's good for the bottom-line; less sick people equals more profit. The government is the institutional body that represents every American and protects every person in America. It only stands to reason that it is in the best interest of the government to have a healthy populous. Why? Less sick people means more revenue.

When we have accesses to effective resources, we don't have to rely on miracles. If you are not as lucky as my father and me to suddenly win a battle you never saw coming, an up-to-date durable, medical power of attorney and an advanced directive negotiated with your healthcare provider to insure all the right words are present in the right order, will go a long way to provide peace of mind when you or someone you love walks the final path. Healthcare is required because we all have a body and are liable when it eventually breaks down and dies. What we do with our healthcare is our choice; we can take advantage of the resources my father and I lacked, or not.

As a caregiver, I had no healthcare of my own. Now I do.