Just received post mortem report .................. Im not sure what to do with what Ive read??

[mosschops30]

For those of you that dont know, my father attempted suicide in April. After 2 agonising weeks the decision was taken, along with the doctors to withdraw treatment and he died a week later.

The post mortem report has just been sent to me, and it would appear that the suicide attempt had no impact on his death.

This has blown me away, the decisions we took, and discussions with doctors were based on the fact that both they, and us believed that he had suffered some sort of brain injury. He never really regained conciosuness, but the reasons given in the report dont support these type of symptoms.

I just dont know what to do, I cant change anything, but ive agonised (both personally and professionally) with the decisions we took at the time and now Im not sure if they were the right ones. I cannot talk to my mum about this, it will destroy her.

Please can anyone give me some advice because I dont know what to do

i am so sorry for your loss, in such traumatic circumstances. i think perhaps a bereavement councillor?

maybe go to your gp and have him explain things a bit more.

i think in any case you need to talk it through
x

Can you go to the GP and talk through what the PM says and what happened at the time.

My brother had a similar thing happen when SIL's PM came back. He thought he'd made a few wrong decisions given that the cause of death was nothing to do with the existing problem and had questions. The GP was able to explain what looked like inconsistencies between the two and it gave my brother a lot of closure.

I'm so sorry.

You made your decisions based on the best of your knowledge at the time. They were the right ones. You couldn't know the things you know now. Agree with Custardo, you need to talk this through further with someone else.

I am so sorry for your loss, and for the difficlut time you are going through now.

Regardless of the post mortem - you did the best you could at the time. Hold on to that thought.

Also - hold on to the thought that your father was trying to commit suicide - try and respect that choice.

I agree talking to gp and/or a counsellor might help.

I can understand the PM (am a nurse so most of it reads ok for me).

Im just so confused over it all. Im not sure my GP would be of any use, theyre not normally, theyd be looking at the clock

I was thinking counselling too custy, they offer it to staff in work.

Could you ask for a debrief with one of the doctors involved with his care and a bereavement counsellor ? They'd be able to explain more about what the post mortem showed and why it doesn't correlate with what was thought to be happening to him.

His consultant at the time was one of the most compassionate doctors I have ever met. Trouble is hospital is 3 hours drive away and due to BP problems and late pregnancy am not up to driving that distance at the moment .
Im sure his doc would discuss with me though, he was very good at the time

I am so sorry.

Is your shock that he had something else wrong that may or may not have killed him, or worried that you gave up when there was a chance?

What was given as cause of death?

Could you speak to the consultant on the phone?

But even at the time I struggled with the decision, I dont believe in things like assiated suicide and am uncomfortable with issues like withdrawing treatment, even though from a professional pov, I know it is sometimes the kindest and only way forward.
My mum took in an advanced directive from years before, which they took, again I was unhappy about this.
On the other hand, yes he obvioudly did want to die, and with the problems found on the PM which no-one had any idea about, his remaining few years would have been pretty miserable

Hi FBG, Im not ahocked about what killed him (it was respiratory, but he also had COPD and severe emphysema, which we had no idea about). But I am shocked it was nothing to do with the suicide
So maybe he would have recoevered, but it would have been a miserable existence, he also had very advanced Parkinsons disease which was also noted as a contributing factor

You did what you could with the info you had, and like you said, he had wanted to die.

My nana was given 3-12 months to live and died after 2.5 months. My baby was due 3 weeks later and I truly believe she had had enough as that wasn't enough to give her a fighting chance.

Sometimes it is just time.

Poor you...a lot of people however given the choice of having a few miserable years,getting more and more ill and more reliant on others would choose to pass away and avoid that kind of life.

I know for certain this is how my dad feel,he has said many times..if i end up like so and so,put me out my misery. I suppose the best way to think about it is this sounds like your dads way of thinking and really nothing you could say or do would have changed that.

I am very sorry for your loss.

Thank you all for sharing your stories, and your sympathies

I suppose that on one hand I know he was a stubborn man who refused any help, amde life hard for my mum because of this and was just a proper old pain in the butt (and I say all this fondly), on the other hand, he took his medication for parkinsons and always kept up his hospital appointments, which kind of contradicts the advanced directive and the wish to die.

Maybe the results of not taking his Parkinsons meds was worse than carrying on.

Don't torture yourself lovie. You can never really know what is going on in someone's mind.