End-of-life preferences deserve thought

Regarding "The end is coming" [Opinion, Jan. 24], I wish more articles about end of life were printed for people to read. You said everything that needed to be said. I thank you and here is why:

Sunday was my mother's funeral. Last year, at age 96, she went from rehabilitation to in-home care to a nursing home. In between, she was sent to the hospital and back to the nursing home six times. Each time, her situation got worse.

She lost her ability to walk and became very weak. They put her in diapers, then when she refused solid food and drank very little at the nursing home they pureed everything and gave her a nutritional drink. When we visited her, she lay in bed with her eyes closed and was nonresponsive to us. The loss of dignity was too much for her. Up until then, she had lived independently: shopping, lunch out at a restaurant, etc. She was vital and alive.

Fortunately she had a "do not resuscitate" order and had signed a power of attorney agreement before all this happened. So when they wanted to prolong her "life" by putting her on artificial breathing, I was able to say no.

Besides this agony, her lifelong savings were depleted by $200,000 last year.

I could not get hospice care for her until the doctor at the nursing home declared she was going to die. That turned out to be only one day before my mother passed on. Isn't that sad!

I hope and pray that some day people will have the right to end their life with peace and dignity with or without a doctor's help. I too would like to decide how I go, if I get old and sick or lose my ability to have quality in my life. If more people would visit a nursing home and see how people suffer, they would give this more thought.

Lewis Perlmutter

East Patchogue