Getting the Point Across
SEPTEMBER 12, 2011 TAGS:
Here's one way to get the point across. 81 year-old Joy Tomkins had the directive "Do not resuscitate" tattooed above her heart so that if she takes ill, doctors will have immediate visual information about her advanced directive desires.
The Norfolk, England grandmother is not terminally ill, but she wants to avoid being kept alive against her wishes.
She said: ”I do not want to be half dead, I want to be fully dead. It might have been different when I was 51 but I am 81 now.
”I am afraid that the medical profession will, with the best of medical intentions I hope, keep me alive when I don’t want to be alive.
”I dont want to lie for hours, months or even years before dying. I don’t want my family to remember me as a lump.
”My mother-in-law lived to be 106 and in the last six years of her life she’d have been much better dead. She was miserable.
”I don’t want to upset anyone but this is something I feel strongly about. I won’t change my mind I never do and my children support me in this.
”That is why I got the tattoo. I have all sorts of things wrong with me but my head is fine. I don’t have a death wish I just don’t want to be kept alive in pain.”
On her back, Tomkins had 'PTO" and an arrow inked on her back, in case she is found face down.
The Norfolk, England grandmother is not terminally ill, but she wants to avoid being kept alive against her wishes.She said: ”I do not want to be half dead, I want to be fully dead. It might have been different when I was 51 but I am 81 now.
”I am afraid that the medical profession will, with the best of medical intentions I hope, keep me alive when I don’t want to be alive.
”I dont want to lie for hours, months or even years before dying. I don’t want my family to remember me as a lump.
”My mother-in-law lived to be 106 and in the last six years of her life she’d have been much better dead. She was miserable.
”I don’t want to upset anyone but this is something I feel strongly about. I won’t change my mind I never do and my children support me in this.
”That is why I got the tattoo. I have all sorts of things wrong with me but my head is fine. I don’t have a death wish I just don’t want to be kept alive in pain.”
On her back, Tomkins had 'PTO" and an arrow inked on her back, in case she is found face down.
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