Frank

I am writing this from the family lounge on 9F at University Hospital, where I have been since noon today. My mother called me this morning and had me come to Syracuse. She needed to make the decision to take my stepfather off life support. He is now getting what they call Comfort Care: he has a morphine drip to keep him comfortable, but all other support has been stopped. He is breathing on his own and they have removed the tube for that. He still has the heart monitor things on his chest and the blood pressure cuff and the feeding tube in, but they aren't hooked up to anything. The feeding tube is there if they need to give him Tylenol or something direct to his stomach. The swelling on his brain hasn't gone down and it's not something they can operate on. There are no guarantees he will wake up, and if he does he will likely not be the same Frank. My mother is afraid to leave, but he could be like this for a very long time...