What Would You Do?

 

I’m reading a book that has me thinking! What would I do, if someday I became a quadriplegic? A quadriplegic is someone that has had spinal damage that has left them paralyzed from the neck down. That would mean that you can’t walk, run, sit, or stand without help. You would need someone to feed you, cloth you, bathe you, clean you up after you urinate and/or have a bowel movement. Nothing would work, except for your brain.

In the book by Jojo Moyes titled Me Before You, 35-year-old Will Traynor was a partner in a prestigious law firm in London. He was hit by a motorcycle early one rainy morning as he was crossing the street and awoke as a quadriplegic.

Can you even imagine that? One moment you’re young and strong and have the world by the tail and the next moment you need help to do the smallest of things, like blow your nose.

In the story, Will agrees to wait six months; at his parents request before he goes to a place called Dignitas, which come to find out is actually a real place. Dignitas is a non-profit organization that offers access to assisted dying in Switzerland. His parents want him to take the six months to think about everything he would lose and would miss if he were to commit suicide. But for Will, he’s already lost everything, he already misses everything. He doesn’t want to live trapped in his body which will gradually weaken and he’s in constant pain.

In walks Louisa Clark aka Lou aka Clark who becomes his caretaker for the six months. She doesn’t know she’s just on suicide watch although she notices that he’s got scars along his arms which look very much to her like a suicide attempt, she finds out it was. Will was left in his wheelchair very close to a window that had a nail sticking out of it and by the ability to move his wheelchair back and forth he was able to cut his arms open and almost dies, he is found just in time.

Will has had to move in with his parents, he has his own private rooms and a physiotherapist named Nathan that comes in daily to exercise him and take care of the bodily functions that Will has. Louisa is hired to relieve Nathan and eventually she finds out that she has been hired to watch him to make sure he does not hurt himself again. She later finds out about the six-month waiting period before his parents will take him to Dignitas so he can end his life. It is at this time that she makes it her mission in life to change Wills mind and show him that he still has a reason to live. I won’t tell you any more about the story in hopes that you decide you want to read it. It’s a book worth reading, I could not put it down.

It made me wonder what I would do? Would I have the courage to go to a place like Dignitas and leave everything I know even though now it’s so different? How could I leave my mom, my kids, my siblings and all my friends, extended family, and people I love. How could I expect them to stand by and watch, knowing what my decision is. Would I ask them to be there for my last moments? Would I want to be alone instead?

What would be the other option, to live trapped in my body and make myself a burden to others. I know there are many people out there in the world that are quadriplegic and are living happy, productive lives, would I be one of them? It just makes one stop and wonder.

I think it takes a certain person to live as a quadriplegic and in the same way it take a certain kind of person do commit assisted suicide, either way it takes a very strong, determined individual to do either choice and I hope I never have to make that choice. My worse nightmare is to be a burden to someone else.