Nothing was helping.  Everything had been tried for a week of the most intensive critical care possible.  A twenty year old man, completely healthy only two weeks previously, was holding on to life by a mere thread and nothing and no one could stop his dying.

His battle against MRSA pneumonia precipitated by a brief influenza-like illness had been lost.   Despite aggressive hemodynamic, antibiotic and ventilator management, he was becoming more hypoxic, his lungs collapsing and his renal function deteriorating.   He had remained unresponsive during the ordeal due to intentional sedation for his time in the ICU.

The intensivist looked weary and defeated. The nurses were staring at their laps, unable to look up, their eyes tearing. The hospital chaplain reached out to hold this young man’s mother’s hands.

After almost a week of heroic effort and treatment, there was now clarity about the next step.

Two hours later, a…