She's Gone. It's Over.
Entry posted by wil
253 views
Early yesterday morning, my mom went to the hospital to see her mother, and she asked me not to go because she got worse overnight. Not badly, but worse.
My grandmother could barely breath, and they had her on a breathing machine with the tubes running up her nose. That wasn't helping. Eventually, she was moved to the ICU.
The doctor came to my mother and my grandfather and told them it was time to start considering to sign a DNR. A Do Not Resuscitate order. Basically that means that they would not keep her alive on machines when her body could no longer provide. And, she signed it.
Around the same time, she had to put on a breathing mask which sucked in air and pushed air into her lungs. She could barely talk through it.
If she wanted to stay alive after that, they would have to put a tube down her windpipe into her lungs, and she would be on a breathing machine for the rest of her life.
The doctor came to talk to her, my mother and grandfather were not in the room, so I don't know what was said. They were going to go back in, but a nurse walked in and told them that she needed five minutes. When they walked back in, she didn't have the breathing mask on. She had called for the nurse to take it off. She said that she was ready to die, and she wasn't afraid. She said she loved us, and would miss everyone.
She died forty minutes later, she had gone to sleep ten minutes before. She died without pain.
She died from being smothered from the inside. Her kidney failure caused her to retain water, which was kept in all of her tissues. It became too much, and smothered her.
Our church minister (Jim Rigby) was there for as much time as he could, we owe him.
I felt the same way at the death of my grandmother. I wished, and wish now again that I wasn't an atheist. I wish I believed in heaven. It would make things easier.
7 Comments
Recommended Comments