Following up on releasing vs holding on….
I just returned from reviewing the patient who is brain dead and on ventilator. The purposes for which they want to hold on to life is, in addition to their love for their relative, a cultural mandate and expectation that no death should happen in the family when a marriage is organized. If death happens, marriage is set aside for one year. Since the patient’s condition was worsening and the possibility of imminent death is there, we shared about our inability to give any time line, how long the person will be alive. And interestingly the family had already thought through the culturally acceptable possible alternatives to protect the marriage, which came as a great release to all concerned in the care of the patient. Which means that every cultural expectation or self-driven interests have a loop hole or a way out! This morning my personal reading was from the book of Isaiah, where King Hezekiah was told that he was to die soon. He then cries out to God and asks that his life be