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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsLet him go! Former president Nelson Mandela is being kept alive only by machines
http://mg.co.za/article/2013-07-04-report-nelson-mandela-is-in-a-vegetative-state<snip>
Former president Nelson Mandela is being kept alive only by machines, say partially corroborated reports.
Reports on Thursday said Nelson Mandela is in a "permanent vegetative state" according to his doctors, who have advised that the machines keeping him alive should be switched off.
News agency Agence France-Presse said it has obtained court documents containing the claim by Mandelas family, echoing similar earlier reports.
"The Mandela family have been advised by the medical practitioners that his life support machine should be switched off."
In court documents that were made public on Wednesday, Mandelas daughter Makaziwe Mandela described his health as perilous, and confirmed that the elder statesman was on a ventilator.
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Tx4obama
(36,974 posts)Breaking @BreakingNews
South Africa Presidency: Doctors deny reports Nelson Mandela is in a 'vegetative state' - @PresidencyZA http://bit.ly/12oY96t
https://twitter.com/BreakingNews/status/352889291078242305
Clarification on the health of former President Mandela
04 July 2013
The Presidency has noted media reports about the condition of former President Nelson Mandela and would like to make a clarification.
Former President Mandela has been and remains under the care of a multi-disciplinary panel of South African medical experts drawn from the South Africa Military Health Services, the public sector, the universities and the private sector. Under this panel a team of doctors, nurses, paramedics and other health professionals attend to Madiba on a 24 hour basis.
We confirm our earlier statement released this afternoon after President Jacob Zuma visited Madiba in hospital that Madiba remains in a critical, but stable condition. The doctors deny that the former President is in a vegetative state.
http://www.thepresidency.gov.za/pebble.asp?relid=15682
malaise
(269,157 posts)This is way too sad
Posteritatis
(18,807 posts)People have been making stuff up about him since the day he was hospitalized; as far as I've been able to tell there've been three rounds of claiming he's dead. If I don't see something in multiple news sources, including at least a couple I recognize, I'm just assuming it's more of the same.
malaise
(269,157 posts)ellisonz
(27,711 posts)...it was most certainly the best decision to let my uncle die at home in peace.
malaise
(269,157 posts)and although mom died in a New York hospital she had a living will.
We were all taught very early that the ultimate philosophical truth is that every living thing eventually dies. It's OK to prolong life if their is likely to be quality of life. Why do that to a 94 year old man.
Maybe they want to celebrate his 95th birthday - but it should be about him,not them.
HipChick
(25,485 posts)we didn't have time to even bring her home...she was up sitting in bed and laughing on a Sunday, and dead by that Wednesday...
she was surrounded by all her family,but its just not the same when its a clinical setting..
pipoman
(16,038 posts)in the next week or so? I am not well studied in South African or Mandela history beyond the basics of the Apartheid Movement..
loyalsister
(13,390 posts)It seems to me that it would be something that most of us would want to be kept private.
MiniMe
(21,718 posts)Who is still being kept alive by machines. Not that I'm a fan of Sharon, but what a terrible existence.