Can a person live forever on a vent?

[night owl]

Now this really bothers me. We had a resident who was transfered to a medical facility just to be placed on a vent. Scenerio: Contracted, stage IV decubes on both hips, heels, GT, S/P tube, trach, vegatative state, 80m y/o male. Family never came to visit, yet wants him vented. Has had pneumonia so many times that it's inhumane. I realize it's none of my business what the family wants for him, but is this not right? I'm sure if he could speak he wouldn't want to be kept alive like this. Sometimes my heart just breaks for my residents and this is one time that it broke. There is only one reason I could come up with for his of plan of care. What do you think it is?

[gwenith, BSN, RN]

Night owl I know you have talked of this before but can I get it clear - if the patient is in your facility the relatives get the social security cheque?

If that is so I would ring the department of social security because if this is allowed it should not be and it is a big loophole that needs to be plugged.

[night owl]

He was transferred to another facility two weeks ago.

[LoriAnnRN]

I went to college in Arkansas; and say what you will about Bill Clinton and hicks and all, but if a pt was brain dead (as mandated by the state via testing) the doctor was allowed by law to extubage and thereyby end the pt's life without the family's consent. Of course they always informed the family first.

[CseMgr1, ASN, RN]

The first image I had of a person on a vent was in 1970 (prior to Roe vs. Wade), was watching a 28-year-old woman die from a massive sepsis, by a self-induced abortion with a coathanger. As she lay there dying, there were pictures of her two little girls..along with stacks of bills brought in by this hospital's business office (I guess they thought she was going to somehow wake up and write them a check).

I don't remember how long this woman lived. I was 18 at the time, and I will never forget that sight, nor the smell of her body, which was rotting from the inside out...