In 2001 my mother suffered severe brain injury in an auto accident on the way home from a church meeting. Essentially, her frontal lobes were destroyed. Because of Oklahoma law, the doctors were required to keep her on life support until I (as the next of kin) gave them permission to turn it off.
This was a major family issue, and she had three sisters who weighed in. Ultimately, I allowed her to remain on life support for another two weeks while we all prayed for a miracle. When they removed life support, she did not die, but continued to live, albeit as a vegetable.
What I surmise happened is that during those two weeks, her non-intellectual functions repaired themselves sufficiently to keep the body alive, but her frontal lobes were essentially just a mass of scar tissue. But her body lived, so we could do nothing--within our own morals or within Oklahoma law--to end that life.
We could not find a satisfactory nursing home. When I had her removed from the last nursing home, I recall the manager saying to me hotly, "You can't keep her alive for a week!"
One of her sisters moved into her house to care for her. My aunt gave her great care--she never even suffered so much as a bed sore. After eight years in that totally unresponsive, vegetative state, her body finally gave out and faded away.
One of my aunts always believed she was conscious and alert during that time. I hated to think that could be the case. My mother had been an incredibly vibrant, active person. She could strike up a conversation with anyone, any time...a total stranger in a restaurant.
In 1975, my mother visited us in Honolulu. One morning, I took her to the Ala Moana shopping center (at the time, the world's largest shopping center) where she spied actor Khigh Dhiegh, who played McGarrett's archenemy Wo Fat in the original series. I'm a serious introvert, but my mother was irrepressible, so she went over and began chatting with him.
And chatting.
And chatting.
And chatting.
Mr Dhiegh remained pleasant while I was looking at my watch. Then, he suddenly invited us to dinner at a nearby restaurant. Totally flabbergasted me. He and my mother chatted through lunch before he finally bid us goodbye.
That's the kind of person my mother had been. The thought that she could have been imprisoned for eight years conscious in that immobile body might have comforted that aunt, but it seemed like a horror to me.
The aunt who cared for her and I of course talked often and directly. We believe it would have been better to have removed the life support earlier, when the doctors first told us that her frontal lobes had been destroyed and there was no medical resort remaining. Instead, we left her on the life support long enough for the base motor functions to rebuild...and that was too long.
We kept her husk alive for as long as it would live...we were certainly not going to take deliberate actions to kill her. But we did agree between the two of us that her care would be as we'd care for a baby, and we'd see that she got regular medical attention, such as times she got different kinds of infections and even caught colds. But we would not go to any extraordinary measures, such as putting her back on life support.
We came to this kind of agreement about such situations, and it's my guide for if such a thing should happen again...and my instructions for if such a thing should happen to me: We would pray for God to work a miracle of healing. We would allow the doctors to do what they can. But when the doctors say, "We've done everything" and their everything did not work, then we'll remove all their devices and let God do what he will.
But to get to the point of the thread, I always wondered where her spirit was during those eight years.
Paul wrote, “
For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know! I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far; but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body."
Paul did not contemplate that the body could be kept alive when the mind had been destroyed. Paul presumed he would either be alive and actively in pursuit of the Lord's mission, or he would be with the Lord.
I can't believe that the Lord allowed my mother's spirit to remain trapped in that body for eight years, neither active in His mission nor with Him. I prefer to believe that her spirit went to the Lord when her body was no longer able to support her mind.
