Death by Starvation

Death by Starvation is cruel. I have researched this topic and found that this is the most cruel and inhumane way for someone to die. Do you remember when the Terry Shiavo case was going on? I do.. I remember it like it was yesterday. I cried for that pour girl. And I prayed that I would never have to face anything like that. How in the world could someone do that to a human.

Now I am going through the same thing. I never thought in a million years that I would have to face something like this. So here’s my story.

Last Saturday my grandfather had a stroke. He can’t talk and his left side is paralyzed. But he is very aware of what is going on. When you speak with him he will look at you and when you tell him to blink, he will. You can hold his hand while he is talking to you and he’ll squeeze it. Sometimes when we leave out the room he will take his right hand and reach for us. So he is not brain dead. The doctors said that he is very aware of what is going on around him, so watch what you say.

Well, my grandmother has decided not to put a feeding tube in him and not to put an IV in him. So that means this man is going to starve to death. How in the world can you do that to someone? This man is fully aware of what is going on, therefore he will be fully aware of his slow cruel death.

It’s hard when you know you will be attending a funeral in a week or so. I can’t bring myself to go over and see him in his last days. I don’t think I can handle the sight of him being starved. I don’t understand why my grandma is doing this. In my eyes it is Murder..

So I researched this topic and this is what I found.

When a person is starved to death they suffer a lot of pain. They have bad stomache pains, bad headaches, their arms and legs cramp from not eating, and they try to cry out from the pain but they can’t shed any tears because there is no fluid in their body. A person can live 10 to 14 days without food and water. Eventually they will go in to a comma right before death. Their kidneys will shut down and then from there own everything in the body starts shutting down.

If my grandfather was brain dead, I might would be able to handle this a little better. But the fact that he is fully aware of what is going on is just something I can’t handle. By the time this article reaches anyone my grandfather will probably be long gone unless god gives us a miracle. But I’m sharing this story in hopes that it will touch at least one person. I feel if he had a living will that this wouldn’t happen. We need to think about our future and create a detailed living will.

I understand that everyone doesn’t feel the same way I do. But my point is, they haven’t given this man enough time to recover. People have strokes everyday and recover in a couple of weeks or so. He won’t even have that chance. I pray that god will give us a miracle and bring this man back to us. I feel like if God was ready to take him, he would have done it. But I don’t think god can prevent him from dying when he dies from being starved.