Question on a "pulling the plug" horror story

[preciousdove]

At a family baby shower today I heard the details of the last agonizing minutes of a man's life last month and I am stunned. The man had a progressive lung disease but had years of active life ahead of him. He worked a strenuous job with a RR. He went in for a lung biopsy for a definitive diagnosis and treatment, came through the procedure but suffered a "widow maker" heart attack in recovery. It was bad enough he ended up on a respirator which was chewing up his already problematic lungs. When he was stable they tried to ween him off and he had another heart attack. They did it two more times before they realized the problem and inserted a stent. His lungs and heart deteriorated and family was called and told without a miracle it was the end. He was heavily sedated because of the pain of everything. They were told the humane thing was to let him go as it would take a miracle for him to get off the ventilator with all the damage he had suffered. The family was given the information that he would probably not ever "wake up" again before he died and that they had two options.

The first option was to remove the presser drugs that kept his blood pressure up and he would pass away in a few hours or they could remove the respirator and he would probably pass away in less than 6 minutes in the condition he was in. The staff emphasized that he would remain unconscious and that pain would be controlled. They opted for the shorter time of death and were told that either way would be a peaceful goodbye.

They removed the ventilator and within one minute "Dad" woke up wild eyed gasping for breath. Pleading with his eyes for help from his horrified family standing around him. The staff gave him no further medications and this went on for a full 30 minutes until he stopped fighting and stopped breathing. The family is having severe traumatic shock issues as you can imagine.

I understand that things can happen but can anyone tell me why the staff did not medicate him when this happened? He was unaware that he was going to be allowed to die but had a living will.