Can you survive after being put on life support? i am doing a persuasive speech on euthanasia and i wanted to know how often it is that the situation comes up. i want to know if when your put on life support with a failing body system, is there a chance y

The : The concept of life support is to provide assistance or replacement of a bodily function, generally categorized as: ventilator support for respiratory failure, medications or pump for heart failure, dialysis for kidney failure. Some consider intravenous nutrition life support also. In some cases, the acute insult that leads a patient to needing life support is removed and the body heals, thus that life support is no longer needed. In some cases, the body was already weakened, or the insult is not reversible, so that life support is continued. Intensive care units utilize life support to differentiate their role in the hospital compared to the regular nursing floors. The decision to remove life support, depends on the prognosis of the initial insult, the overall condition, including age, quality of life and other medical conditions, and most importantly, the wishes of the patient and secondarily the family when the patient cannot make an informed decision. Withdrawal of life support can be considered when it is clear that the patient will not recover to a meaningful quality of life. Although euthanasia is considered different than life support withdrawal, in that both acts hasten death, in the case of life support withdrawal, we are simply taking away a crutch that keeps the patient alive allowing the normal disease process to lead to death to occur. In the case of euthanasia, there is active participation of health care providers to provide medications that engage another process of death.

It : It depends on what you mean by life support. We do use life support every day in the intensive care unit and operating room.

In : In short answer, yes. Life support equipment is used on a frequent and daily basis for many people with very serious medical problems. Many times this life support is specifically used to support the weakened organ or organs, to allow time to heal with medical help, and then there would be an expected full recovery. Other times the "life support" is used with only a hope that there would be some possible chance of full or partial recovery. Euthanasia is not something that is used in routine medical care in the United States. There are a very few states that do allow for a doctor to assist in the death of a terminally ill person, but laws vary in each state and the requirements for the doctors in these very serious situations are quite strict.