Hi, my 92 year old mother died after emergency duodenal ulcer surgery. She spent three months in the hospital post-surgery, and recovered to the point where she was preparing to move to a rehab facility. While still on a feeding tube, she aspirated a cup of liquid into her lungs, and things quickly went downhill. After much encouragement from her doctors to remove her from life support, we agreed. The attending physician prescribed a dose of Dilaudid, and once administered, my mother died within a few minutes. It appeared to me that she died from an overdose as opposed to a lack of oxygen. Is this common in these situations? I always assumed that when a person is taken from life support they simply die naturally. In my mother's case, it was as though she was euthanized.
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Hi, my 92 year old mother died after emergency duodenal ulcer surgery. She spent three months in the hospital post-surgery, and recovered to the point where she was preparing to move to a rehab facility. While still on a feeding tube, she aspirated a cup of liquid into her lungs, and things quickly went downhill. After much encouragement from her doctors to remove her from life support, we agreed. The attending physician prescribed a dose of Dilaudid, and once administered, my mother died within a few minutes. It appeared to me that she died from an overdose as opposed to a lack of oxygen. Is this common in these situations? I always assumed that when a person is taken from life support they simply die naturally. In my mother's case, it was as though she was euthanized.
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