On May 17, 2024, The New York Times wrote an article with the headlines, "Study Suggests Waiting Longer Before Withdrawing Life Support". This article discusses when a patient with a severe traumatic brain injury is comatose, unresponsive, and hooked up to a ventilator, when is the time to withdraw life support? Researchers behind the new study say that their data suggests that doctors' predictions so soon after the injury frequently are wrong. The researchers found that 42% who continued life support recovered enough in the next year to have some degree of independence. A few even returned to their former lives. Chayim Aruchim has always taken this position that following a traumatic brain injury, it is an unknown as to what is really going on. This also has Halachic implications. Since we agree with this study that soon after a traumatic brain injury one does not know what is going on, the patient is therefore not a goses. If the patient is not a goses then one is obligated to treat. |
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