Mental

True Story #29

Brain damage can be absolutely horrific. Broken humans that don't work anymore and nobody knows what to do with them. There was one guy who had brain damage from infant meningitis. The guy is about 40-50 years old now, but he's exactly like what you might imagine a lobotomized person to look like. Totally vacant staring eyes, jaw hanging down with a continuous thread of dribble rolling off his bottom lip. Arms hanging down by his sides. And all he does is pace up and down whatever room he is in, all day and all night, until he collapses asleep after about 4-5 days sleeps 12 hours, wakes up and resumes pacing. He wears an adult nappy/diaper because he is totally incontinent, and changing it is remarkably difficult because he won't stop pacing even while people are trying to clean him up. He cannot eat by himself, he cannot do anything by himself, the only verbal noise/speech he produces is a loud 'GU-GU-GU-GU-GU-GU-GU-GU' like a propeller engine starting up. There's nothing there in his mind, at all. He's a husk. He never smiles, never frowns, give no indication of any aspiration or want. That has been his entire life. He has no purpose, has required 24 hour care his entire life, and I don't think there's a single person who has ever worked with him that wouldn't have gladly taken him outside and shot him in the head if they were allowed to. Anybody opposed to euthanasia hasn't seen real brain damage. Anyone who can't understand why doctors give up trying to resuscitate after a certain point where irreversible brain damage has occurred have not seen real brain damage. Anyone upset about the doctors ending Charlie Gard's life haven't seen real brain damage. They should transport the guy I described between hospitals to show family members what the doctors are talking about when they say that a person should be allowed to die.