ere dying. The story of a woman, whose husband became brain dead after a catastrophic car accident, was the focus of a particularly poignant segment:
For all intents and purposes, Don McCarthy died in 1981 when his car wrapped around a telephone pole. But it would be 15 years before his wife could give him a decent burial.
Claire McCarthy had a six-month-old baby when she learned that her 25-year-old husband had been seriously injured in a car accident. Friends since high school, they had been married just three years.
Don had suffered major brain damage and was in a coma. He spent a month in the intensive care unit (ICU) in a Boston hospital, where he was hooked to total life support, including a respirator. The doctors made various attempts to relieve the swelling in his brain, from making burr holes in his skull to giving him a high dose of barbiturates.
After a month in the ICU, the doctors tried to pull Don out of his coma, but he did not respond. Eventually, he was transferred to a long-term care facility in Cambridge. Claire was 24 years old. She never imagined she'd spend the next 15 years of her life struggling with charting the course of her husband's treatment.
When Don was first transferred, Claire was optimistic. Although the doctors at the hospital had told Claire he would never recover, she still held out hope. Her husband was young and healthy. He would pull through.
Claire visited Don every day and brought their daughter, Megan. "I can remember thinking he was looking at me," she says. On other visits, Claire would stand by his bed and show him pictures of Megan. But Don never responded.
After 10 months, a neurosurgeon put a shunt in Don's head to drain the fluid from his brain. They hoped that would help arouse Don. It didn't.
After a year, Don's physicians at the long-term care facility told Claire he would never recover. They advised Claire to join a support group of others who had injured fam...