Giving Up Too Soon

Tim Bowers was 32, a newlywed and active outdoorsman, when he suffered a severe spine injury. Paralyzed from the shoulders down, Tim was sedated and put on a ventilator. Doctors gave a grim prognosis as they often do. Tim’s family asked that he be brought out of sedation so he could decide about his future care. Emotionally traumatized by his condition, he asked that the ventilator be turned off and he died within hours. My friend, Joni Eareckson Tada, who at 17 became paralyzed from the shoulders down in a diving accident, shared her thoughts with me regarding Tim’s situation. “To expect a freshly-traumatized person to make a rational decision about life-as-a-quadriplegic is medical malpractice.” I agree, Tim may have been another Joni, and look what she’s done for the kingdom.