My 87 year old Grandpa had a hart attack and fell knocking himself out. No one could reach him during the day and we all assumed his phone lines were down because of the rain. My mom went to take him dinner and found him without a pulse. Upwards of an hour after calling 911, EMS managed to get a pulse and took him to the hospital. We were told he had little chance of making it through the night and if he did he would have brain damage and was in kidney failure from everything that happened.

After talking it over with the family we decided to take him off life support as we were only drawing out the inevitable. I'm okay with my Grandpa passing, he lived a good life and did everything he could do to support our family even though he married into it. I never expected the weight on my hart that the decision to take him off life support gave me. I know logically that it was the right thing to do and he would have wanted it, but being to person to make that call hurt more than I ever expected it would.

I wanted to post this as a reminder to have the difficult conversations and make your wishes known. And to the ones left behind who have to carry the burden of taking a loved one off life support, you are doing the right thing even if it hurts. And know that knowing right from wrong and feeling right or wrong are two different things.

TLDR: My grandpa had a hart attack and I realized that taking someone off life support can hurt more than I ever thought about.