Category

ALS

One man’s experience using Washington’s PAD law

By | ALS, End-of-life care, Medical Aid in Dying, PAD, Suffering and Death | 2 Comments

A Washington state man, Aaron McQ, described his illness (a rare form of ALS) as “terrifying . . . like waking up every morning in quicksand.”  He agreed to discuss his experience with Kaiser News to help provide more understanding about how users feel after qualifying for PAD.  Over 3,000 terminally ill residents in the US have used PAD laws since Oregon’s first took effect twenty years ago. This is one man’s experience.

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ALS and the End-of-Life Choice

By | ALS | 3 Comments

Once ALS starts, it almost always progresses, eventually taking away the ability to walk, dress, write, speak, swallow, and breathe and shortening the life span. How fast and in what order this occurs is very different from person to person. While the average survival time is 3 years, about twenty percent of people with ALS live five years, 10 percent will survive ten years and five percent will live 20 years or more.

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