Excerpt from The Boston Globe.
A successful ‘wrongful prolongation of life’ lawsuit in Montana, among other things, reflects the extent to which many Americans will go to gain — and enforce — their rights to control their final days.
HELENA, Mont. — He checked into the hospital for a common procedure and collapsed while unattended, in cardiac arrest, in a hospital restroom, of all places.
What happened to him next, he came to believe, was even worse.
Rodney Knoepfle woke up. He was confused. His ribs hurt. Hours had passed that he could not recall, as if he had been frozen in time while the rest of the world had jumped ahead. Slowly he pieced it together. Staff at St. Peter’s Hospital had discovered him slumped against a bathroom wall. They had rung up a code blue — the alarms, the rolling crash cart, CPR compressions on Rodney’s chest, and an epinephrine shot to jolt his heart.
