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This programme contains scenes which some viewers may find upsetting | 0:00:02 | 0:00:11 | |
Your dad's here, your mom's on her way. | 0:00:12 | 0:00:15 | |
You can talk to him, if you like. | 0:00:16 | 0:00:18 | |
Hi, Langston. | 0:00:18 | 0:00:19 | |
We've come from London, England. We're making a TV programme. | 0:00:20 | 0:00:24 | |
You're in the hospital, | 0:00:24 | 0:00:26 | |
and, so, we've been filming your family a little bit | 0:00:26 | 0:00:30 | |
and filming with you a little bit, too. | 0:00:30 | 0:00:33 | |
So, we're hoping you're going to wake up | 0:00:35 | 0:00:37 | |
and we can tell you a little bit more about what we're doing. | 0:00:37 | 0:00:41 | |
SHE SIGHS | 0:00:45 | 0:00:47 | |
How are you feeling? | 0:00:47 | 0:00:48 | |
Um, good, I feel really good. I know some people don't think | 0:00:48 | 0:00:52 | |
there's a lot of progress but something's better than nothing. | 0:00:52 | 0:00:56 | |
You know, there's been miracles | 0:00:56 | 0:00:58 | |
in many hospitals and they can't say why. | 0:00:58 | 0:01:01 | |
So, this is going to be a miracle right here. | 0:01:02 | 0:01:06 | |
I was in Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, | 0:01:12 | 0:01:15 | |
meeting patients looking for a last chance at life. | 0:01:15 | 0:01:20 | |
If I do this, I'm buying maybe months right? | 0:01:20 | 0:01:24 | |
It could be more than that. | 0:01:24 | 0:01:26 | |
All right, then, let's do it. | 0:01:26 | 0:01:28 | |
In America, doctors will go further to treat extreme cases | 0:01:28 | 0:01:33 | |
than almost anywhere else in the world. | 0:01:33 | 0:01:35 | |
He's young, he's a fighter. We decided to keep going. | 0:01:35 | 0:01:40 | |
I'd fight for life, I certainly would. | 0:01:40 | 0:01:42 | |
I mean, what? Sit there, and just die? | 0:01:42 | 0:01:46 | |
But the financial costs are enormous, | 0:01:46 | 0:01:49 | |
the side effects sometimes severe, | 0:01:49 | 0:01:51 | |
and the odds of success often very small. | 0:01:51 | 0:01:54 | |
Patients and their families face the harrowing choice | 0:01:56 | 0:01:59 | |
of accepting death or carrying on, | 0:01:59 | 0:02:02 | |
in the hope that one last procedure will pay off. | 0:02:02 | 0:02:06 | |
On the seventh floor of Saperstein Critical Care Tower, | 0:02:24 | 0:02:28 | |
Langston Jackson, a 22-year-old college athlete, was non-responsive | 0:02:28 | 0:02:33 | |
in the intensive-care unit. | 0:02:33 | 0:02:36 | |
His family had been by his bedside since his arrival five days earlier, | 0:02:36 | 0:02:40 | |
among them, his mother Lyle. | 0:02:40 | 0:02:43 | |
Can you, can you tell me a little bit about what's going on? | 0:02:43 | 0:02:46 | |
Well, Langston was in rehab for the past 19 days, | 0:02:46 | 0:02:52 | |
and on Saturday morning, he had... | 0:02:52 | 0:02:57 | |
He and his roommate had gotten in contact... | 0:02:57 | 0:03:00 | |
connected with drugs and he had an overdose, from what I understand, | 0:03:00 | 0:03:05 | |
from the facility, at about 3am. | 0:03:05 | 0:03:08 | |
What do you understand about his condition at the moment? | 0:03:08 | 0:03:12 | |
I understand he's in very critical condition. | 0:03:12 | 0:03:15 | |
He has compromised liver and kidney function, | 0:03:15 | 0:03:17 | |
and a traumatic brain injury. | 0:03:17 | 0:03:21 | |
And they are waiting for him | 0:03:21 | 0:03:23 | |
to be able to breathe on his own | 0:03:23 | 0:03:27 | |
to diagnose his brain injury further. | 0:03:27 | 0:03:30 | |
How optimistic are you for Langston? | 0:03:30 | 0:03:33 | |
Well, I understand that this is going to take quite a while | 0:03:33 | 0:03:36 | |
but that he's hopefully able to walk, talk, | 0:03:36 | 0:03:41 | |
do everything that he wants to do, and continue to live his life, | 0:03:41 | 0:03:44 | |
even with limited... marked limitations - that's fine. | 0:03:44 | 0:03:49 | |
In charge of Langston's care was the ICU medical director Dr Heather Jones. | 0:03:51 | 0:03:57 | |
She'd called a family meeting to discuss his prognosis. | 0:03:58 | 0:04:01 | |
-All right. -OK if I sit next to you? | 0:04:03 | 0:04:07 | |
OK. So, erm, what Langston has is not...a blood clot | 0:04:08 | 0:04:14 | |
that blocked a certain part... | 0:04:14 | 0:04:16 | |
A certain artery going to a certain part of the brain. | 0:04:16 | 0:04:18 | |
He has... | 0:04:18 | 0:04:20 | |
Basically, certain areas of his brain were very, very, er, | 0:04:20 | 0:04:26 | |
sensitive to the fact that his oxygen level was very low. | 0:04:26 | 0:04:30 | |
And, so, that's the part where it gets really heartbreaking, | 0:04:30 | 0:04:35 | |
is that, you know, when I asked Dr Moheet, | 0:04:35 | 0:04:39 | |
who was the neuro-intensivist who took care of him | 0:04:39 | 0:04:42 | |
when he was first sick, and Dr Palestrant, as well, | 0:04:42 | 0:04:45 | |
felt that his chances of waking up | 0:04:45 | 0:04:49 | |
and being normal again | 0:04:49 | 0:04:51 | |
are very small. | 0:04:51 | 0:04:53 | |
And they just said that? Did they just say that? | 0:04:53 | 0:04:56 | |
Well, you know, I think that, that, erm... | 0:04:56 | 0:04:58 | |
I've been concerned about that from the beginning, and I think that | 0:05:00 | 0:05:04 | |
we've all been concerned about that but, you know, time will tell. | 0:05:04 | 0:05:08 | |
And, so, in the first 24, 48, 72 hours, | 0:05:08 | 0:05:14 | |
you kind of hope for the best, | 0:05:14 | 0:05:16 | |
and you hope that what you're seeing on the scan is not real. | 0:05:16 | 0:05:20 | |
I think that we're all sad because I was really hoping | 0:05:20 | 0:05:24 | |
he would wake up and I know that the first night... | 0:05:24 | 0:05:26 | |
What do you mean, hoping he would wake up? He's still planning on waking up, though, right? | 0:05:26 | 0:05:30 | |
Probably not. | 0:05:30 | 0:05:33 | |
He's probably had such severe brain damage | 0:05:34 | 0:05:37 | |
that he's not going to wake up. | 0:05:37 | 0:05:40 | |
That he's going to be in, kind of, a comatose state and that, | 0:05:40 | 0:05:45 | |
even if he does wake up, | 0:05:45 | 0:05:46 | |
he would probably have pretty severe brain damage. | 0:05:46 | 0:05:49 | |
How was that for you? | 0:05:56 | 0:05:58 | |
Well, it's so hard. It's a really hard one cos I... | 0:05:58 | 0:06:02 | |
You know, and also I'm talking at them and I know they're not... | 0:06:02 | 0:06:05 | |
They're not hearing me. | 0:06:05 | 0:06:07 | |
If you allowed them to continue maybe in a state of | 0:06:07 | 0:06:12 | |
-slightly unrealistic... -Mm-hm. -..hope, | 0:06:12 | 0:06:16 | |
what would have been the downside of that? | 0:06:16 | 0:06:19 | |
Well, I think they're still in that slightly unrealistic hope. | 0:06:19 | 0:06:22 | |
I don't think I could really penetrate that, you know. | 0:06:22 | 0:06:25 | |
-But you did your best to do that. -Yeah, yeah, yeah. | 0:06:25 | 0:06:28 | |
And why was that? | 0:06:28 | 0:06:30 | |
Well, cos it's time to start talking about that, you know. | 0:06:31 | 0:06:36 | |
It's not 24 hours later, it's... What is it? | 0:06:36 | 0:06:40 | |
It's four days later now, five days later, you know? | 0:06:40 | 0:06:43 | |
So we need to start talking about those things, so... | 0:06:43 | 0:06:46 | |
Cos they don't hear a lot, so we have to keep coming back to it. | 0:06:46 | 0:06:51 | |
I was in Cedars-Sinai South Tower, home to another group of patients | 0:07:02 | 0:07:06 | |
fighting for their lives against cancer. | 0:07:06 | 0:07:10 | |
I had an appointment with Dr Yuliya Linhares. | 0:07:10 | 0:07:13 | |
She was visiting a leukaemia patient, 29-year-old Javier Galvan. | 0:07:13 | 0:07:18 | |
-She had news about his cell count. -How are you? | 0:07:18 | 0:07:22 | |
-Hello. -How are you feeling today? | 0:07:22 | 0:07:24 | |
-I'm OK. -He looks good, right? -Yeah, yeah. Much better. | 0:07:24 | 0:07:27 | |
-Yeah. -I just wanted to tell you the counts - it looks like | 0:07:27 | 0:07:31 | |
the absolute neutrophil count | 0:07:31 | 0:07:34 | |
is showing up, so it's not certain | 0:07:34 | 0:07:36 | |
whether they're bad or whether they're good, you know. | 0:07:36 | 0:07:39 | |
Sometimes they're good ones that just means that | 0:07:39 | 0:07:42 | |
they're young cells that your bone marrow is spitting out | 0:07:42 | 0:07:45 | |
and if they are the bad cells... | 0:07:45 | 0:07:48 | |
SHE SIGHS | 0:07:48 | 0:07:49 | |
I will really have to kind of pick my brain of what to do next. | 0:07:49 | 0:07:54 | |
I mean, we can't go back to anything he's already had. | 0:07:54 | 0:07:57 | |
I think that's still... | 0:07:57 | 0:07:58 | |
If he's in a good enough shape, I think that's still a choice. | 0:07:58 | 0:08:02 | |
-OK. -So what...what are you up against right now, | 0:08:02 | 0:08:05 | |
as you understand it? | 0:08:05 | 0:08:07 | |
As far as I understand, it's my blood - I'm fighting myself. | 0:08:09 | 0:08:13 | |
My blood is killing me. | 0:08:13 | 0:08:15 | |
It can't hold any nutrients, | 0:08:16 | 0:08:17 | |
it can't do anything, can't produce itself and it's dying. | 0:08:17 | 0:08:21 | |
How would you characterise it, Dr Linhares? | 0:08:21 | 0:08:23 | |
What's the scenario we're in right now with Javier? | 0:08:23 | 0:08:26 | |
So, yeah, basically, erm, right now, erm, we're battling | 0:08:26 | 0:08:31 | |
acute myeloid leukaemia, | 0:08:31 | 0:08:33 | |
and we've been trying to kill it with a series of | 0:08:33 | 0:08:37 | |
different treatments. The treatments themselves are life-threatening. | 0:08:37 | 0:08:40 | |
If Javier had died from that, | 0:08:40 | 0:08:42 | |
what would have been the actual medical cause? | 0:08:42 | 0:08:46 | |
Kills all the, like, dividing cells, | 0:08:46 | 0:08:48 | |
so it kills the lining of the gut, the lining of the mouth, | 0:08:48 | 0:08:51 | |
so you can get terrible mouth sores. | 0:08:51 | 0:08:53 | |
Pretty much the whole inside of the mouth can pretty much fall off, | 0:08:53 | 0:08:57 | |
just, like, fall off. It's very painful. | 0:08:57 | 0:08:59 | |
Are you OK with hearing... This is getting kinda gruesome. | 0:08:59 | 0:09:02 | |
-Yeah, it's fine. -Yeah. -Cos you've already been through this. | 0:09:02 | 0:09:04 | |
Already, he went through that, he survived that. | 0:09:04 | 0:09:07 | |
I know. But even so, it's making ME feel a little bit ill. | 0:09:07 | 0:09:09 | |
You can hear them screaming. I've heard people screaming in the night. | 0:09:09 | 0:09:13 | |
In the night, from what? | 0:09:13 | 0:09:14 | |
Pain. Just... | 0:09:14 | 0:09:16 | |
It's your whole body turning against you. | 0:09:16 | 0:09:19 | |
It becomes like fire to move. | 0:09:19 | 0:09:21 | |
Without, like, anything to calm it, it consumes you. | 0:09:21 | 0:09:27 | |
It's really terrible, it's pretty much... | 0:09:27 | 0:09:30 | |
And you can't do anything about it. | 0:09:30 | 0:09:32 | |
How was the decision taken to continue with all these | 0:09:34 | 0:09:37 | |
chemotherapies in the case of Javier? | 0:09:37 | 0:09:40 | |
He's young, he's a fighter. | 0:09:40 | 0:09:43 | |
His body organs, overall, | 0:09:43 | 0:09:47 | |
are functioning well. We decided to keep going. | 0:09:47 | 0:09:51 | |
What would be the reasons not to offer further treatments, | 0:09:51 | 0:09:55 | |
further chemo? | 0:09:55 | 0:09:57 | |
He's had a lot of treatment already and his body is weak. | 0:09:57 | 0:10:02 | |
It's weakened by so many chemotherapy treatments - | 0:10:02 | 0:10:05 | |
they're very toxic. | 0:10:05 | 0:10:06 | |
So, at one point, the risk of treatment is so high - | 0:10:06 | 0:10:10 | |
the risk of treatment taking the patient's life is so high - | 0:10:10 | 0:10:13 | |
that physicians just don't offer it any more. | 0:10:13 | 0:10:18 | |
And last time, I actually told him that he may live longer | 0:10:18 | 0:10:23 | |
just choosing comfort type of care | 0:10:23 | 0:10:25 | |
rather than chemotherapy because, in the short run, | 0:10:25 | 0:10:28 | |
chemotherapy could take his life fast, | 0:10:28 | 0:10:31 | |
but they still chose to go on with the treatment. | 0:10:31 | 0:10:34 | |
That was New Year's 2010, so the year before he got sick. | 0:10:41 | 0:10:47 | |
Before his health set-backs, Javier had been financing his dream | 0:10:49 | 0:10:53 | |
of becoming an X-ray technician by working in a photocopy shop. | 0:10:53 | 0:10:57 | |
It was there that he'd met Adriana in 2006. | 0:10:57 | 0:11:01 | |
-What was your plan before any of this happened? -We were going to get part-time jobs | 0:11:01 | 0:11:05 | |
cos we quit our full-time jobs. Then we were going to start school | 0:11:05 | 0:11:08 | |
and then we were going to get married. Yeah, that was the plan. | 0:11:08 | 0:11:13 | |
Pretty simple. | 0:11:13 | 0:11:14 | |
As far as the care goes and the different stages on the journey, | 0:11:14 | 0:11:18 | |
have you always been in sync, the two of you? | 0:11:18 | 0:11:21 | |
Erm, he's made it very clear what he wants and... | 0:11:21 | 0:11:26 | |
..you know, you kind of have to... | 0:11:27 | 0:11:30 | |
It's his... It's his journey | 0:11:30 | 0:11:32 | |
and he's the one that's sick and he's the one that, kind of, | 0:11:32 | 0:11:36 | |
is in charge of his own care. And I asked him, I said, | 0:11:36 | 0:11:39 | |
"Well, if you don't think you can do it, if you can keep going | 0:11:39 | 0:11:43 | |
"like, will you tell me?" I'll never deny that for him | 0:11:43 | 0:11:47 | |
if that's what he chooses but, you know, he's always been, like, | 0:11:47 | 0:11:50 | |
the, "We can kind of do this," like, "I can fight this," like, "It's OK." | 0:11:50 | 0:11:54 | |
Javier and Langston were facing life-threatening conditions | 0:12:03 | 0:12:07 | |
in a country that leads the world in spending on end-of-life care. | 0:12:07 | 0:12:11 | |
So proud of you. | 0:12:12 | 0:12:14 | |
The US has turned its famous sense of can-do on to the problem | 0:12:14 | 0:12:16 | |
of extreme illness. | 0:12:16 | 0:12:18 | |
Most Americans either have health insurance | 0:12:20 | 0:12:23 | |
or their care is paid for by the state. | 0:12:23 | 0:12:26 | |
For them, there is a smorgasbord of expensive treatment options. | 0:12:26 | 0:12:30 | |
But also the question of when to stop. | 0:12:31 | 0:12:34 | |
Back with Dr Jones, and she had an appointment to discuss Langston's | 0:12:37 | 0:12:40 | |
brain scan results with her colleague Dr Yu, a neurologist. | 0:12:40 | 0:12:45 | |
The best-case scenario is that he might wake up but he'll never | 0:12:45 | 0:12:50 | |
be able to walk, he'll never be able to feed himself. | 0:12:50 | 0:12:53 | |
Will he know who he is? Will he be able to follow commands? | 0:12:53 | 0:12:56 | |
Best-case scenario. | 0:12:56 | 0:12:58 | |
So, best-case scenario, | 0:12:58 | 0:13:00 | |
patient will end up in a persistent vegetative state. | 0:13:00 | 0:13:03 | |
-That's the best-case scenario. -He will open eyes, yawn. | 0:13:03 | 0:13:06 | |
Vegetative state with a minimal conscious level. | 0:13:06 | 0:13:09 | |
-OK. -All right. And that's the best-case scenario? | 0:13:09 | 0:13:13 | |
Yeah. This is a pretty severe injury. | 0:13:13 | 0:13:16 | |
OK. | 0:13:16 | 0:13:17 | |
What are the choices going forward, then? | 0:13:17 | 0:13:19 | |
It's... I've been thinking a lot about this, you know. | 0:13:19 | 0:13:24 | |
If it was me - and I've told my family in no uncertain terms - | 0:13:24 | 0:13:29 | |
that I would not want to be kept alive. | 0:13:29 | 0:13:31 | |
They're not going to be ready to do that with him. | 0:13:31 | 0:13:33 | |
I don't think anybody really wants that | 0:13:33 | 0:13:35 | |
but I think sometimes families really have a hard time letting go. | 0:13:35 | 0:13:39 | |
And my experience is that, you know, it's going to take some time. | 0:13:39 | 0:13:43 | |
So I wanted to talk to you guys about what's going on. | 0:13:46 | 0:13:51 | |
I don't want to dash your hopes | 0:13:51 | 0:13:54 | |
but I need to tell you that... | 0:13:54 | 0:13:57 | |
-from a scientific medical standpoint... -Yes. | 0:13:57 | 0:14:01 | |
..he's not going to wake up. | 0:14:01 | 0:14:03 | |
And that he's had very severe brain damage | 0:14:03 | 0:14:06 | |
and that the best-case scenario is that he will be | 0:14:06 | 0:14:09 | |
in a persistent vegetative state, | 0:14:09 | 0:14:11 | |
meaning he will be in a nursing home, | 0:14:11 | 0:14:14 | |
on tube feeds, he will have a diaper, | 0:14:14 | 0:14:17 | |
he won't be able to interact, | 0:14:17 | 0:14:19 | |
he won't ever be able to talk again, he won't know who he is. | 0:14:19 | 0:14:22 | |
I want you guys... | 0:14:22 | 0:14:24 | |
..to think about Langston, | 0:14:25 | 0:14:27 | |
about whether, if he could be part of this conversation, | 0:14:27 | 0:14:30 | |
and let's say not now - let's say a month from now | 0:14:30 | 0:14:34 | |
if he hasn't woken up, | 0:14:34 | 0:14:37 | |
would he want to be kept alive in that state? | 0:14:37 | 0:14:40 | |
I mean, you know, I understand what you're saying. | 0:14:40 | 0:14:43 | |
I hear what you're saying and I respect because I know doctors | 0:14:43 | 0:14:46 | |
have to be ultra conservative, | 0:14:46 | 0:14:47 | |
cos if you say that he's going to be all right, and this, | 0:14:47 | 0:14:50 | |
and he's not, then we'll be leaving here disappointed. | 0:14:50 | 0:14:53 | |
So I understand how that goes. | 0:14:53 | 0:14:54 | |
You know you didn't know him before coming in here, | 0:14:54 | 0:14:56 | |
but he is a fighter, and he is very stubborn | 0:14:56 | 0:14:59 | |
and he comes around at his own time. | 0:14:59 | 0:15:02 | |
And, last night, I said, "Hey, it's Uncle Stallion. | 0:15:02 | 0:15:05 | |
"I'm getting ready to leave," | 0:15:05 | 0:15:07 | |
and then I said, "If you hear me, open your eyes." | 0:15:07 | 0:15:10 | |
-And he opened his eyes? -And he opened his eyes and I was not touching, I was away, | 0:15:10 | 0:15:14 | |
and he opened his eyes and he looked at me. | 0:15:14 | 0:15:16 | |
That was my experience, it wasn't yours. | 0:15:16 | 0:15:18 | |
You weren't there. Most doctors don't have time | 0:15:18 | 0:15:20 | |
to come and sit and watch like the family sit and watch. | 0:15:20 | 0:15:23 | |
When the nurse comes around we're like, "Look," | 0:15:23 | 0:15:25 | |
-and he won't do it, and I'm like, "Langston, I'm going to hurt you." -Do you want to go try now? -Yes. | 0:15:25 | 0:15:29 | |
Let's go take a look, let's see what we can do right now. | 0:15:29 | 0:15:32 | |
Hey, sweetie pie. | 0:15:34 | 0:15:35 | |
Langston, if you hear Ashley, look over to Ashley. | 0:15:35 | 0:15:39 | |
Langston, squeeze my hand. | 0:15:39 | 0:15:41 | |
Langston, squeeze my hand, come on. | 0:15:43 | 0:15:45 | |
-He's way more alert when he's not drugged. -Right, right. Let's see. | 0:15:45 | 0:15:50 | |
So he has this doll's eye reflex so I think he's probably, you know, | 0:15:50 | 0:15:54 | |
not conscious right now. | 0:15:54 | 0:15:57 | |
So see how they go back to the middle? | 0:15:57 | 0:16:00 | |
That's a doll's eye reflex so I think he's probably... | 0:16:00 | 0:16:03 | |
-What he's looking like now... -Yeah. -That's not how he was yesterday. | 0:16:03 | 0:16:06 | |
Yeah, OK. | 0:16:06 | 0:16:08 | |
OK, guys, any other questions right now? | 0:16:08 | 0:16:11 | |
Well, thank you for coming in. I really appreciate it. | 0:16:11 | 0:16:13 | |
It seemed as though the doctor had one message | 0:16:13 | 0:16:16 | |
and you, kind of, respectfully disagreed. | 0:16:16 | 0:16:20 | |
For sure. | 0:16:20 | 0:16:21 | |
And you made that quite clear. So what point were you putting across? | 0:16:21 | 0:16:26 | |
That I don't think we're going to necessarily have to worry about | 0:16:26 | 0:16:32 | |
my brother being a vegetable. | 0:16:32 | 0:16:34 | |
And even if he's... You know, has a slight disability of some sort, | 0:16:34 | 0:16:39 | |
that he will be able to cope and will be a little bit better | 0:16:39 | 0:16:44 | |
that the prognosis that they are assuming. | 0:16:44 | 0:16:48 | |
-And you don't resent them... -For what happened? -..for trying to... | 0:16:48 | 0:16:53 | |
let you know what their clinical impression is of the situation? | 0:16:53 | 0:16:56 | |
Definitely not. We get that that's reality. We're not delusional, | 0:16:56 | 0:16:59 | |
we're not in the fantasy world, you know. | 0:16:59 | 0:17:02 | |
I know it might seem that way but we have to be super-positive | 0:17:02 | 0:17:05 | |
when such great odds are against him towards everybody else. | 0:17:05 | 0:17:09 | |
When the doctor had said something about, | 0:17:09 | 0:17:11 | |
"What would Langston want if he were in the room now?" | 0:17:11 | 0:17:15 | |
did you give any thought to that? | 0:17:15 | 0:17:17 | |
I did. I mean, my brother, although he suffered | 0:17:17 | 0:17:22 | |
from depression at times, or whatnot, | 0:17:22 | 0:17:24 | |
he was always full of life and full of hope. | 0:17:24 | 0:17:28 | |
And full of optimism in regards to things could get better | 0:17:28 | 0:17:31 | |
which is why he checked himself and stayed in the rehab. | 0:17:31 | 0:17:34 | |
Clearly, he didn't foresee what happened happening | 0:17:34 | 0:17:37 | |
but he was still, like, trying, so I know that he wouldn't want us | 0:17:37 | 0:17:41 | |
to give up on him cos he never gave up on himself. | 0:17:41 | 0:17:44 | |
For patients who have stabilised in ICU | 0:17:55 | 0:17:57 | |
but are still not responsive, there are other facilities | 0:17:57 | 0:18:00 | |
that offer what is called long-term sub-acute care. | 0:18:00 | 0:18:04 | |
One is Fountain View. | 0:18:05 | 0:18:06 | |
Here, many of the residents are in states of minimal consciousness | 0:18:08 | 0:18:11 | |
that can last years. | 0:18:11 | 0:18:13 | |
-Hi. -Hi. | 0:18:15 | 0:18:17 | |
-Are you Rosa Lee? -Yes, hi. | 0:18:17 | 0:18:18 | |
-Hi. Louis. -Hi. -Nice to meet you. This is Francisco? | 0:18:18 | 0:18:21 | |
-Yeah. -Hi, Francisco. | 0:18:21 | 0:18:24 | |
Francisco Fahado was a physician originally from the Philippines. | 0:18:26 | 0:18:30 | |
He's been a full-time resident of Fountain View | 0:18:30 | 0:18:33 | |
since a stroke in 2010. | 0:18:33 | 0:18:35 | |
His sister Rosa Lee is a daily visitor. | 0:18:35 | 0:18:38 | |
The interesting thing is Francisco's face is showing | 0:18:38 | 0:18:42 | |
all kinds of expressions. | 0:18:42 | 0:18:44 | |
Do you think he's registering that there's an unusual voice here? | 0:18:45 | 0:18:49 | |
Maybe he hears... He's looking quite stimulated - is that OK? | 0:18:49 | 0:18:54 | |
-Yeah. -Are you OK, Francisco? | 0:18:54 | 0:18:56 | |
SHE SPEAKS OWN LANGUAGE | 0:18:58 | 0:19:01 | |
We're from the BBC. | 0:19:05 | 0:19:06 | |
We're making a documentary about people with serious conditions. | 0:19:06 | 0:19:10 | |
And we'd... | 0:19:12 | 0:19:14 | |
We just wanted to get to know you a little bit. | 0:19:14 | 0:19:17 | |
And how long has he been in this state? | 0:19:17 | 0:19:20 | |
Three years in December. | 0:19:20 | 0:19:22 | |
We've always hoped that, you know, | 0:19:22 | 0:19:25 | |
one day he would wake up. | 0:19:25 | 0:19:29 | |
But he's made progress, at least for us. | 0:19:29 | 0:19:32 | |
I mean, maybe the doctors might not say that that's progress | 0:19:32 | 0:19:37 | |
but for us, family, you know, just little things that we see | 0:19:37 | 0:19:41 | |
different every day from the time he got sick - | 0:19:41 | 0:19:44 | |
that's improvement for us, no matter what it is. | 0:19:44 | 0:19:47 | |
Have the doctors said what they feel is a realistic prognosis? | 0:19:47 | 0:19:53 | |
From the start, they said that he was not going to recover. | 0:19:53 | 0:19:57 | |
And, you know, like I said, we believe differently, you know. | 0:19:57 | 0:20:00 | |
We understand, you know. I work in health care and I understand | 0:20:00 | 0:20:06 | |
but, you know, as a family... | 0:20:06 | 0:20:09 | |
..you know, that's... We believe differently. | 0:20:10 | 0:20:13 | |
In the nearly three years that Francisco has been in this state, | 0:20:13 | 0:20:18 | |
have you had any words from him? | 0:20:18 | 0:20:20 | |
No. No. Not words. | 0:20:20 | 0:20:25 | |
Mostly facial expression. | 0:20:26 | 0:20:28 | |
Dr Michael Soffer is the director for Francisco's unit. | 0:20:32 | 0:20:36 | |
Once a week, he makes rounds on the patients under his care. | 0:20:36 | 0:20:39 | |
What is the prognosis like for Francisco at this point? | 0:20:41 | 0:20:44 | |
No recovery. A few years until some event happens | 0:20:44 | 0:20:49 | |
that results in his passing, | 0:20:49 | 0:20:51 | |
whether it's an overwhelming pneumonia, or another stroke, | 0:20:51 | 0:20:55 | |
or heart attack, or any number of possibilities. | 0:20:55 | 0:20:58 | |
Could you give an idea of what you think his quality of life is like? | 0:20:58 | 0:21:02 | |
Well, when I ask patients who are able to understand | 0:21:02 | 0:21:07 | |
and respond appropriately, if they were in a vegetative state | 0:21:07 | 0:21:11 | |
such as this, would they want to be kept alive like this, | 0:21:11 | 0:21:14 | |
pretty much universally they tell me no. | 0:21:14 | 0:21:17 | |
So I don't believe that there is much quality | 0:21:19 | 0:21:22 | |
in his unfortunate existence. | 0:21:22 | 0:21:26 | |
Has something gone wrong with the system here in some way, | 0:21:26 | 0:21:29 | |
that these types of cases are being cared for for years and years? | 0:21:29 | 0:21:35 | |
Years ago - 20, 30 years ago - we didn't do this. | 0:21:35 | 0:21:38 | |
We didn't have these facilities available. | 0:21:38 | 0:21:40 | |
And if people got to this point where they could not function... | 0:21:40 | 0:21:44 | |
..you know, at this level, | 0:21:46 | 0:21:49 | |
then they died, you know. | 0:21:49 | 0:21:51 | |
There are always trade-offs, and when society... | 0:21:51 | 0:21:55 | |
When we as a society choose to spend our money on keeping | 0:21:55 | 0:21:59 | |
the end-stage-of-life patients alive longer, | 0:21:59 | 0:22:02 | |
we chose not to spend money on services for other people | 0:22:02 | 0:22:07 | |
that perhaps could benefit more. | 0:22:07 | 0:22:09 | |
Have you ever thought about if something like this were ever | 0:22:09 | 0:22:13 | |
to befall you, what you would do? | 0:22:13 | 0:22:16 | |
What you would want done to you? | 0:22:16 | 0:22:18 | |
I've already made that decision cos, you know, | 0:22:18 | 0:22:21 | |
when this happened, you know... | 0:22:21 | 0:22:23 | |
..I would do the same thing. | 0:22:25 | 0:22:27 | |
Do you feel you still have... | 0:22:27 | 0:22:28 | |
-..a good relationship with him? -Yes. | 0:22:30 | 0:22:34 | |
Even though he's just lying there and, to some extent, | 0:22:34 | 0:22:37 | |
-he's unresponsive, you feel that there's still...? -Yes. | 0:22:37 | 0:22:42 | |
I don't... I can't explain it, but I just know that he knows... | 0:22:43 | 0:22:48 | |
..we're here, you know. We're looking after him. | 0:22:49 | 0:22:52 | |
MUSIC PLAYS | 0:22:54 | 0:22:56 | |
SHE TALKS SOOTHINGLY | 0:22:56 | 0:22:58 | |
At Cedars-Sinai South Tower, on the cancer ward, | 0:23:13 | 0:23:18 | |
I was with Dr Richard Gould | 0:23:18 | 0:23:20 | |
with an appointment to meet his patient, Dontay Rogers. | 0:23:20 | 0:23:24 | |
-Hi, Dontay. -How are you? -Good, how are you doing? -Good. Good. | 0:23:25 | 0:23:29 | |
-Nice to meet you. -Nice to meet you, too. | 0:23:29 | 0:23:31 | |
-You know we're from the BBC, right? -Yes. -From London, England. -Yes. | 0:23:31 | 0:23:35 | |
Viva London. | 0:23:35 | 0:23:37 | |
THEY LAUGH | 0:23:37 | 0:23:39 | |
DONTAY SIGHS | 0:23:39 | 0:23:40 | |
Dontay had come to LA with dreams of making it as an entertainer | 0:23:40 | 0:23:45 | |
but, aged 31, he'd been diagnosed with cancer. | 0:23:45 | 0:23:48 | |
With no health insurance, he qualified for public assistance | 0:23:48 | 0:23:52 | |
for his medical care. | 0:23:52 | 0:23:54 | |
So, how long have you two been...had this relationship, doctor/patient? | 0:23:54 | 0:23:58 | |
Probably a little over nine months now. | 0:23:58 | 0:24:01 | |
Yeah, almost five months, so, five months I've been here. | 0:24:01 | 0:24:06 | |
Yeah. Dontay was initially diagnosed with a locally advanced | 0:24:06 | 0:24:09 | |
anal cancer that we treated with chemotherapy | 0:24:09 | 0:24:13 | |
and radiation with the hopes of curing, | 0:24:13 | 0:24:15 | |
but, unfortunately, the treatment was difficult | 0:24:15 | 0:24:18 | |
for Dontay to get through | 0:24:18 | 0:24:19 | |
and once we got through it, there was still active cancer there. | 0:24:19 | 0:24:23 | |
So, there was chemo and radiation but, basically, | 0:24:23 | 0:24:26 | |
it did not eradicate the cancer? | 0:24:26 | 0:24:28 | |
-Exactly. -So, then? | 0:24:28 | 0:24:30 | |
Really, the best chance that we had at that point to try | 0:24:30 | 0:24:34 | |
to get rid of the cancer was to do a large surgery to remove | 0:24:34 | 0:24:39 | |
the anal rectal cancer and to remove the spots from the liver. | 0:24:39 | 0:24:44 | |
Yeah, it saved my life. | 0:24:44 | 0:24:46 | |
Saved my life. They got rid of the cancer so far. | 0:24:46 | 0:24:49 | |
You've basically been residing in the hospital for about 150 days, | 0:24:49 | 0:24:54 | |
-is that right? -Close to, but it's more like 120-something days | 0:24:54 | 0:24:58 | |
so about 125 days now. | 0:24:58 | 0:25:00 | |
So that is a lot of...medical attention and a lot of expense. | 0:25:00 | 0:25:05 | |
I could buy two houses and maybe have something... | 0:25:05 | 0:25:09 | |
Move to London and have a chateau. | 0:25:09 | 0:25:11 | |
So, if it's not... So, if it's not an indelicate question, | 0:25:11 | 0:25:15 | |
do you have a figure of how much it would have cost? | 0:25:15 | 0:25:19 | |
Well, my last bill I looked at, we're probably at about 2 million - | 0:25:19 | 0:25:24 | |
somewhere close to that. | 0:25:24 | 0:25:26 | |
Is it helpful to talk about... | 0:25:26 | 0:25:29 | |
you know, a time frame, | 0:25:29 | 0:25:32 | |
or how likely it is... | 0:25:32 | 0:25:34 | |
How long he'll live, you know, things like that? | 0:25:34 | 0:25:36 | |
I give people a general sense of how much longer I think | 0:25:36 | 0:25:41 | |
they're going to live, based upon days, weeks, months, or years, | 0:25:41 | 0:25:44 | |
but I have no idea how long anybody has, you know, cancer or no cancer. | 0:25:44 | 0:25:48 | |
And so it's one of the hardest questions to answer. | 0:25:48 | 0:25:51 | |
Have you had a conversation like that with Dontay? | 0:25:51 | 0:25:54 | |
I have. I have. You know, Dontay is a silver-lining guy. | 0:25:54 | 0:25:59 | |
You know, he focuses on the hope, he focuses on the good things | 0:25:59 | 0:26:03 | |
and trying to keep a positive attitude. So for him thinking about, | 0:26:03 | 0:26:08 | |
"Well, the cancer has such a high likelihood of coming back," | 0:26:08 | 0:26:11 | |
that is hard for him. | 0:26:11 | 0:26:13 | |
And so he focuses on that small percentage | 0:26:13 | 0:26:18 | |
that maybe the cancer won't come back, | 0:26:18 | 0:26:20 | |
maybe we'll be able to give him further treatments, | 0:26:20 | 0:26:22 | |
and to get him through this. | 0:26:22 | 0:26:24 | |
Back with Javier - | 0:26:33 | 0:26:34 | |
and Dr Linhares had the results from his biopsy and his cell count. | 0:26:34 | 0:26:39 | |
Hi, Javier. How are you feeling? | 0:26:39 | 0:26:41 | |
Cancery. THEY LAUGH | 0:26:41 | 0:26:44 | |
Just, er, hanging in there. | 0:26:44 | 0:26:45 | |
Just trying to get through the day. | 0:26:47 | 0:26:49 | |
All right, so are you ready to talk? | 0:26:49 | 0:26:52 | |
-Sure. -All right, so we did the bone-marrow biopsy yesterday | 0:26:52 | 0:26:57 | |
and, unfortunately, it's full of leukaemia. | 0:26:57 | 0:27:02 | |
So it's not in remission. | 0:27:02 | 0:27:05 | |
Actually, it looks like it just grew. | 0:27:05 | 0:27:08 | |
All the good cells, again, are down. | 0:27:08 | 0:27:11 | |
-So it went from 24% to...? -95. | 0:27:11 | 0:27:14 | |
-OK. -95% less, | 0:27:14 | 0:27:18 | |
and there are no good cells. | 0:27:18 | 0:27:19 | |
The options remain the same... | 0:27:19 | 0:27:22 | |
..which is...one is, of course, if you feel like | 0:27:24 | 0:27:28 | |
enough chemotherapy is enough, | 0:27:28 | 0:27:29 | |
is to just not do anything. | 0:27:29 | 0:27:33 | |
The other one is a real, erm, | 0:27:33 | 0:27:36 | |
you know, brain twister because I knew that that wouldn't be what | 0:27:36 | 0:27:41 | |
you would want. I kind of guessed that. | 0:27:41 | 0:27:44 | |
So, erm, we were trying to think of | 0:27:44 | 0:27:48 | |
the treatments that could still benefit you | 0:27:48 | 0:27:52 | |
and the only one I could think of | 0:27:52 | 0:27:55 | |
with there being the most sure bet is the very first | 0:27:55 | 0:27:59 | |
we gave you because that one was the one that killed the leukaemia. | 0:27:59 | 0:28:02 | |
You did have the complications but they were due to influenza. | 0:28:02 | 0:28:07 | |
So, erm, I think that if we could stay on track, | 0:28:07 | 0:28:11 | |
then you could have maintained the remission. | 0:28:11 | 0:28:14 | |
I mean, we've come this far. I mean... | 0:28:14 | 0:28:16 | |
-Yeah. -Really. | 0:28:16 | 0:28:18 | |
You ready? | 0:28:21 | 0:28:22 | |
I'm ready. It's up to you. | 0:28:22 | 0:28:23 | |
-Yeah. -Why do you have to be so efficient? | 0:28:23 | 0:28:26 | |
What would be a reason not to do it? | 0:28:26 | 0:28:29 | |
Well, just because, honestly, the chances of chemotherapy working | 0:28:29 | 0:28:33 | |
after somebody already had four different chemotherapy treatments | 0:28:33 | 0:28:37 | |
which didn't work are less than 50%. | 0:28:37 | 0:28:42 | |
For many people, this would just be enough. | 0:28:42 | 0:28:45 | |
Is that a factor for you, Javier? | 0:28:45 | 0:28:48 | |
I mean, really, they're offering me nothing or something, | 0:28:48 | 0:28:51 | |
so I might as well just take something. | 0:28:51 | 0:28:55 | |
I don't see a point in not pursuing a chance. | 0:28:55 | 0:28:59 | |
So...I've gotta go for it. I mean, really. | 0:29:01 | 0:29:05 | |
If Javier decided not to do it, he wouldn't be able to go home? | 0:29:05 | 0:29:09 | |
He would. He would just go home with basically... Yeah, just... | 0:29:09 | 0:29:14 | |
A death sentence. | 0:29:14 | 0:29:16 | |
It would be, like, a week or two weeks - if that. | 0:29:16 | 0:29:19 | |
And what are you thinking, Javier? | 0:29:21 | 0:29:23 | |
I'm thinking I've let everybody down. | 0:29:23 | 0:29:26 | |
How could you feel you've let anyone down? | 0:29:26 | 0:29:28 | |
After I beat the first remission, it was kind of like, "Yay," | 0:29:28 | 0:29:34 | |
you know, "I beat the first remission." | 0:29:34 | 0:29:36 | |
So, it was just kind of uplifting. | 0:29:37 | 0:29:40 | |
And then I got a different kind of AML and now it's like | 0:29:40 | 0:29:46 | |
all these promises that I've made are, like, completely haberdash, | 0:29:46 | 0:29:50 | |
it's just garbage. | 0:29:50 | 0:29:53 | |
It's a garbage outcome for... | 0:29:53 | 0:29:56 | |
kind of an epic struggle. It's just... | 0:29:56 | 0:30:00 | |
It's a big let down. | 0:30:00 | 0:30:02 | |
It really is. | 0:30:02 | 0:30:04 | |
I mean, Adriana, like... | 0:30:05 | 0:30:07 | |
..I'm so sorry. | 0:30:10 | 0:30:12 | |
What can you do? | 0:30:13 | 0:30:16 | |
-It's OK. -I'm so sorry, baby. | 0:30:16 | 0:30:19 | |
Why would you feel you're... | 0:30:19 | 0:30:21 | |
Adriana, you don't feel Javier's letting you down, do you? | 0:30:21 | 0:30:23 | |
No. It's just, you know, I guess another bump in the road. | 0:30:23 | 0:30:28 | |
You feel let down by the disease, but not by Javier. | 0:30:28 | 0:30:32 | |
It's just so aggressive, you know? | 0:30:32 | 0:30:34 | |
How much time could I buy? | 0:30:34 | 0:30:37 | |
It may not be that much of a difference. | 0:30:37 | 0:30:39 | |
That's why I'm even offering this | 0:30:39 | 0:30:41 | |
because I think that where things are already is... | 0:30:41 | 0:30:45 | |
Already pretty dire. | 0:30:45 | 0:30:46 | |
It's already not good, yeah, | 0:30:46 | 0:30:48 | |
therefore it's hard to make it too... | 0:30:48 | 0:30:51 | |
It's hard to make it worse, basically. | 0:30:51 | 0:30:53 | |
All right. If I do this, I'm buying maybe months, right? | 0:30:53 | 0:30:57 | |
Well, it depends. | 0:30:57 | 0:30:59 | |
If you're in remission then you could do a transplant, | 0:30:59 | 0:31:01 | |
-so more than months. -If it works, it could be more than that. | 0:31:01 | 0:31:04 | |
Right, then let's do it. | 0:31:04 | 0:31:06 | |
Adriana, do you have a view on what you would like the decision to be? | 0:31:06 | 0:31:10 | |
We kind of have to go for it, you know? | 0:31:10 | 0:31:13 | |
It's going to be... Either it's going to be chemo, or... | 0:31:13 | 0:31:17 | |
It's going to be weeks or it's going to be months. | 0:31:17 | 0:31:19 | |
I mean, we kind of have to... | 0:31:19 | 0:31:22 | |
I think we'll always kind of wonder, | 0:31:22 | 0:31:23 | |
I guess - or at least I will - you know, | 0:31:23 | 0:31:25 | |
if you tried it, would it have worked? | 0:31:25 | 0:31:28 | |
And, you know, I kind of like him a little bit. | 0:31:28 | 0:31:30 | |
I want him around as much as possible! | 0:31:30 | 0:31:33 | |
So we've got to try. | 0:31:33 | 0:31:35 | |
OK, all right. | 0:31:35 | 0:31:38 | |
Oh, I know. | 0:31:38 | 0:31:40 | |
Don't worry, he'll be fine. | 0:31:40 | 0:31:42 | |
See you later. | 0:31:42 | 0:31:44 | |
Now Javier's chances of surviving this | 0:31:45 | 0:31:50 | |
are very close to zero. | 0:31:50 | 0:31:53 | |
Realistically, it's...zero. | 0:31:53 | 0:31:59 | |
I mean, I was in the room when we were talking about this, | 0:31:59 | 0:32:02 | |
and I didn't get the impression that his odds were quite so slim. | 0:32:02 | 0:32:08 | |
Do you think they understand that? | 0:32:08 | 0:32:10 | |
Yes, I'm sure they understand | 0:32:10 | 0:32:11 | |
because I, er, told him that his, er... | 0:32:11 | 0:32:15 | |
first choice, as I verbalised it, was to go home | 0:32:15 | 0:32:18 | |
and just pursue comfort measures. And, er, | 0:32:18 | 0:32:22 | |
usually when we say that, that means that the odds are very, very slim. | 0:32:22 | 0:32:28 | |
So the textbook analysis of this situation would be, | 0:32:28 | 0:32:31 | |
you should let him go home and be with his family | 0:32:31 | 0:32:36 | |
-and not go through any more interventions? -Yeah. | 0:32:36 | 0:32:40 | |
But you know that and, you know, I respect your instincts | 0:32:40 | 0:32:43 | |
for what you feel he needs. | 0:32:43 | 0:32:46 | |
There can be so many ethics discussions about this, | 0:32:46 | 0:32:50 | |
and there can be so many people who would say, "What are you guys doing? | 0:32:50 | 0:32:55 | |
"You're crazy. Send him home - this is not going to work. | 0:32:55 | 0:32:59 | |
"Why is he going to die in the hospital?" | 0:32:59 | 0:33:01 | |
But on the other hand, like I said, | 0:33:01 | 0:33:04 | |
I hate pushing people in some direction | 0:33:04 | 0:33:07 | |
because with him I would be pushing him. This is not what he wants - | 0:33:07 | 0:33:10 | |
he wants to keep fighting - and I just... | 0:33:10 | 0:33:13 | |
I can't, I can't be breaking him. It's very tough | 0:33:13 | 0:33:18 | |
and it seems like it doesn't make sense, but... | 0:33:18 | 0:33:22 | |
I don't know - if I were in his shoes, I might prefer the same. | 0:33:22 | 0:33:26 | |
You're going to feel a lot better after this. You got great teeth. | 0:33:35 | 0:33:39 | |
Did you have to go through orthodonture or were you born lucky? | 0:33:39 | 0:33:42 | |
Langston had now been in the hospital more than a month. | 0:33:43 | 0:33:47 | |
His family were convinced that he was getting better, | 0:33:47 | 0:33:49 | |
and now even some of the nurses were starting to see progress. | 0:33:49 | 0:33:53 | |
Have you noticed any eye contact with you yet? | 0:33:53 | 0:33:56 | |
No, I see him look at me but I don't see him track me, | 0:33:56 | 0:34:00 | |
but I've seen him look at me and when he hears a sound he reacts. | 0:34:00 | 0:34:04 | |
-Oh, OK. -That I do notice. | 0:34:04 | 0:34:06 | |
-That's a start in the right direction. -Yeah. | 0:34:06 | 0:34:09 | |
Langston? Can you hear me? | 0:34:09 | 0:34:12 | |
Langston, can you hear me? | 0:34:15 | 0:34:17 | |
I'd arranged a visit with his sister Ashley to try to get to know him | 0:34:22 | 0:34:26 | |
and learn a little about his football career | 0:34:26 | 0:34:29 | |
and his brush with drugs. | 0:34:29 | 0:34:30 | |
-Hi. -Hi. -How are you doing? Nice to see you. | 0:34:32 | 0:34:36 | |
'We started with some old photos of Langston | 0:34:36 | 0:34:39 | |
'with his twin brother Lorne.' | 0:34:39 | 0:34:42 | |
That's a nice one. That's you in the middle. | 0:34:44 | 0:34:47 | |
Yeah. | 0:34:47 | 0:34:48 | |
'If you have someone that makes you feel like a buttercup, | 0:34:50 | 0:34:54 | |
'that's good. | 0:34:54 | 0:34:55 | |
'If you don't have that anyone makes you feel like a buttercup, | 0:34:55 | 0:34:58 | |
'or doesn't love you, I'm just going to say it - I love you | 0:34:58 | 0:35:01 | |
'and you are my buttercup. | 0:35:01 | 0:35:03 | |
'Don't ever forget that.' | 0:35:03 | 0:35:06 | |
Do you have any sense of what would have induced him | 0:35:06 | 0:35:09 | |
to start taking serious drugs? | 0:35:09 | 0:35:11 | |
No, I think, you know, in Simi Valley it's been an epidemic. | 0:35:11 | 0:35:14 | |
He's lost 11 friends in the past... Since 2011. | 0:35:14 | 0:35:17 | |
-I think it's just... -To drugs, to heroin? | 0:35:17 | 0:35:19 | |
To heroin, in Simi Valley, so I think it's just a drug that came, | 0:35:19 | 0:35:22 | |
that followed. Some places it might be coke, | 0:35:22 | 0:35:24 | |
some places it might be meth, in Simi Valley it's just heroin. | 0:35:24 | 0:35:28 | |
Sometimes...I mean, there's | 0:35:28 | 0:35:29 | |
so many different reasons that people do drugs - was there | 0:35:29 | 0:35:32 | |
anything in his life that was... Did he seem troubled in any way? | 0:35:32 | 0:35:36 | |
-Yeah. -About what? | 0:35:36 | 0:35:38 | |
He was, like...always had high expectations for himself. | 0:35:38 | 0:35:41 | |
There was always competition between him and our other brother. | 0:35:41 | 0:35:44 | |
-His twin, Lorne? -Yeah. | 0:35:44 | 0:35:46 | |
And Lorne always seemed to get it right and, you know... | 0:35:46 | 0:35:50 | |
And Lorne was, er, doing better academically - is that right? | 0:35:50 | 0:35:53 | |
-Correct. -And in any other way? | 0:35:53 | 0:35:55 | |
No. | 0:35:55 | 0:35:57 | |
Or was he just... Was Lorne... Is Lorne a bit more of a... | 0:35:57 | 0:36:00 | |
I mean, would get into trouble less? | 0:36:00 | 0:36:03 | |
He would never get in trouble. | 0:36:03 | 0:36:04 | |
-Why not? -He was scared. | 0:36:04 | 0:36:06 | |
He was scared of authority, scared of consequences, | 0:36:06 | 0:36:10 | |
scared of things like that. We weren't. | 0:36:10 | 0:36:12 | |
-Langston has never been like that? -No. | 0:36:12 | 0:36:15 | |
Do you think he's been depressed? | 0:36:15 | 0:36:17 | |
Yeah. We went to a USC Cow Game in San Diego | 0:36:17 | 0:36:22 | |
and he couldn't take the game. | 0:36:22 | 0:36:25 | |
Like, he was crying hysterically and I left with him to go outside | 0:36:25 | 0:36:28 | |
because he just was feeling bad at the decisions that he'd made | 0:36:28 | 0:36:31 | |
and he had regrets, and he was, like, he should be on the field, | 0:36:31 | 0:36:34 | |
he could do better than any of those guys there | 0:36:34 | 0:36:37 | |
and it was just harder for him. | 0:36:37 | 0:36:38 | |
Let's just say he stays exactly where he is now - | 0:36:38 | 0:36:41 | |
would that be... I mean, you'd still be OK with that? | 0:36:41 | 0:36:45 | |
I would, but I know he's not going to stay where he's at now. | 0:36:45 | 0:36:48 | |
I know he's going to get better. | 0:36:48 | 0:36:50 | |
I mean, if you were in his position, you would want exactly the same? | 0:36:50 | 0:36:55 | |
I'm only going to die when my heart stops beating | 0:36:55 | 0:36:58 | |
and when I can't breathe on my own, says God, not says a human being. | 0:36:58 | 0:37:04 | |
As long as there's life in my body, allow me to fight. | 0:37:05 | 0:37:08 | |
At the hospital, the 24-hour vigil at Langston's bedside | 0:37:14 | 0:37:18 | |
had been joined by a new family member. | 0:37:18 | 0:37:22 | |
How do you do? I'm Louis. Nice to meet you. What's your name? | 0:37:22 | 0:37:25 | |
-Miss Jackson. -Miss Jackson. | 0:37:25 | 0:37:27 | |
-Langston? -Langston. -It's your grandmother. | 0:37:27 | 0:37:33 | |
Come on, turn your head over and give me a smile. | 0:37:33 | 0:37:36 | |
Don't give me no crying now. | 0:37:36 | 0:37:38 | |
I came too far for tears. I've been crying for so long I want to laugh. | 0:37:38 | 0:37:44 | |
Come on over here. Hey! Come on over here. | 0:37:47 | 0:37:50 | |
What do you close your eyes when I do that for? | 0:37:52 | 0:37:56 | |
You think I'm going to slap you? | 0:37:56 | 0:37:57 | |
-SHE CHUCKLES -Granny ain't going to hurt the baby! | 0:37:57 | 0:37:59 | |
How would you describe Langston before he got ill? | 0:37:59 | 0:38:03 | |
How would I describe him? | 0:38:03 | 0:38:04 | |
He has always been polite. | 0:38:04 | 0:38:06 | |
He hasn't ever talked back dirty. | 0:38:06 | 0:38:10 | |
He's always been a malleable child. | 0:38:10 | 0:38:13 | |
Like I say, God forgive you. God forgive you. | 0:38:13 | 0:38:18 | |
And he told the devil you can hurt him but you sure ain't going to kill him. | 0:38:20 | 0:38:24 | |
And I believe it. I'm a child of God and all of my seeds... | 0:38:25 | 0:38:31 | |
All of you are my seed. You're hurting now. | 0:38:32 | 0:38:36 | |
God's going to make you laugh at the devil, | 0:38:37 | 0:38:41 | |
cos he won't never succeed. | 0:38:41 | 0:38:43 | |
He's not going to carry you. | 0:38:43 | 0:38:44 | |
You're in the fog, but it's going to be clear. | 0:38:44 | 0:38:48 | |
One day you're going to see. | 0:38:48 | 0:38:50 | |
The image of Langston's family praying for him | 0:38:53 | 0:38:55 | |
was undeniably moving. | 0:38:55 | 0:38:57 | |
It was hard not to get swept up in the emotion | 0:38:58 | 0:39:01 | |
and the temptation to believe | 0:39:01 | 0:39:03 | |
that an appeal to the supernatural might help. | 0:39:03 | 0:39:05 | |
More than ever, I was reminded of the resolve of families | 0:39:07 | 0:39:10 | |
to keep going at any cost. | 0:39:10 | 0:39:13 | |
It was three weeks since my first conversation with Dontay. | 0:39:15 | 0:39:19 | |
Recovery from surgery was proving slower than expected. | 0:39:19 | 0:39:23 | |
Dr Gould had arranged a meeting with his surgical team. | 0:39:23 | 0:39:26 | |
Yeah, I've got the whole team here, so... | 0:39:26 | 0:39:29 | |
So that we could talk with you and answer any questions | 0:39:29 | 0:39:32 | |
that you have, so we would have everybody. | 0:39:32 | 0:39:35 | |
How are you doing? How are you feeling? | 0:39:35 | 0:39:38 | |
I'm OK, just trying to position myself. | 0:39:38 | 0:39:41 | |
So we all met to talk about, er, where things are at with you | 0:39:41 | 0:39:46 | |
and with your cancer and with the surgery | 0:39:46 | 0:39:49 | |
and with your healing and needing more pain medicine and, er, | 0:39:49 | 0:39:52 | |
we've been doing everything that we can to help the wound to heal, | 0:39:52 | 0:39:57 | |
but we just hit a roadblock where it's not healing any further | 0:39:57 | 0:40:01 | |
and that the area around the wound is starting to break down. | 0:40:01 | 0:40:04 | |
And so we've been talking about what our options are to try to help with that. | 0:40:04 | 0:40:09 | |
We wanted to get both of your surgeons in the same place | 0:40:09 | 0:40:12 | |
to talk with you about that, so... | 0:40:12 | 0:40:15 | |
I want CJ, since he does the most, to talk about it. | 0:40:17 | 0:40:22 | |
Yeah, I mean, when we look at the progression | 0:40:22 | 0:40:25 | |
at the time of the APR, the abdominoperineal resection, | 0:40:25 | 0:40:29 | |
you had, you know, we took viable tissue and we bought it into | 0:40:29 | 0:40:32 | |
the perineum area and then when we look at the way it healed, | 0:40:32 | 0:40:36 | |
unfortunately the surrounding tissue is not integrating the flap, | 0:40:36 | 0:40:40 | |
and so that's what we were brainstorming about | 0:40:40 | 0:40:42 | |
is like, what are the likelihoods if we bring in other tissue | 0:40:42 | 0:40:45 | |
that the same type of situation will again arise | 0:40:45 | 0:40:48 | |
and place you in a worse situation then you are at this time? | 0:40:48 | 0:40:51 | |
So what does that mean? I have to... | 0:40:51 | 0:40:55 | |
Am I just stuck with, er, trying to make this heal or what? | 0:40:55 | 0:41:00 | |
Yeah, we're unfortunately at a place where it's not healing | 0:41:00 | 0:41:04 | |
and it doesn't look like it's going to heal. And so it's about | 0:41:04 | 0:41:08 | |
what we can do to keep you comfortable and to take away the pain | 0:41:08 | 0:41:12 | |
but we're not going to be able to make it better, unfortunately. | 0:41:12 | 0:41:15 | |
-OK. -OK? | 0:41:17 | 0:41:20 | |
So it's about looking at comfort measures and, basically, hospice. | 0:41:20 | 0:41:24 | |
The best that we can do for you is to focus on not doing anything | 0:41:24 | 0:41:28 | |
which is going to make you feel worse | 0:41:28 | 0:41:30 | |
and only give you treatments which will help you to feel better. | 0:41:30 | 0:41:33 | |
It seems so simple yet so complicated. I don't understand it. | 0:41:33 | 0:41:39 | |
The tissues just aren't healing, Dontay. | 0:41:39 | 0:41:42 | |
You know, it's the toughest decision | 0:41:42 | 0:41:43 | |
for a surgeon not to offer surgery, | 0:41:43 | 0:41:48 | |
and for an oncologist not to offer any treatment options, | 0:41:48 | 0:41:51 | |
so coming to this decision, you know... | 0:41:51 | 0:41:56 | |
I can't imagine how hard it is on you but it's pretty hard on us too. | 0:41:56 | 0:42:00 | |
Thank you for the news, and... | 0:42:02 | 0:42:04 | |
maybe a miracle will happen, I don't know. | 0:42:04 | 0:42:08 | |
We'll still be here checking on you and taking care of you - | 0:42:08 | 0:42:11 | |
that hasn't changed. | 0:42:11 | 0:42:12 | |
It's just the direction of our treatment has changed | 0:42:12 | 0:42:16 | |
so that we can make sure that we're keeping you as comfortable | 0:42:16 | 0:42:20 | |
and as pain-free as possible. | 0:42:20 | 0:42:21 | |
OK. | 0:42:21 | 0:42:22 | |
-Thank you. -You're welcome. | 0:42:25 | 0:42:28 | |
God is with you. | 0:42:31 | 0:42:33 | |
Give in to God, and I know... | 0:42:34 | 0:42:39 | |
Boy, they talked it out, though. They looked at everything, | 0:42:39 | 0:42:43 | |
they talked it out. | 0:42:43 | 0:42:44 | |
All those minds together, because everybody so... | 0:42:44 | 0:42:49 | |
so cares about you and loves you. | 0:42:49 | 0:42:53 | |
You have to give in to God, sweetheart. | 0:42:53 | 0:42:55 | |
So what am I supposed to do? | 0:42:55 | 0:42:57 | |
Am I just supposed to sit in a bed for ever? | 0:42:57 | 0:42:59 | |
You must be Aunt Bonnie? | 0:43:08 | 0:43:10 | |
-Yes. -I'm Louis. | 0:43:10 | 0:43:11 | |
Louis, nice to meet you. | 0:43:11 | 0:43:12 | |
Nice to meet you. How are you doing? | 0:43:12 | 0:43:14 | |
Fine. Just...fine. | 0:43:14 | 0:43:16 | |
Just trying to absorb everything that's going on with Dontay. | 0:43:16 | 0:43:21 | |
I'm just shocked that a wound is going to take his life. | 0:43:23 | 0:43:28 | |
I-I-I just can't believe that. I-I won't believe that. | 0:43:28 | 0:43:32 | |
Dontay, and you? What are you thinking? | 0:43:32 | 0:43:35 | |
It's even more devastating for me because my mind has been set | 0:43:35 | 0:43:39 | |
that I was going to get out of here and um, you know, the... | 0:43:39 | 0:43:44 | |
To see the doctors that you've looked up to | 0:43:44 | 0:43:47 | |
through all this time and them look at you empty in the face and... | 0:43:47 | 0:43:52 | |
See, I didn't want to get started again. | 0:43:52 | 0:43:55 | |
We're just hoping for a miracle. | 0:43:57 | 0:43:59 | |
He's just a special young man to us | 0:43:59 | 0:44:03 | |
and, er, we just don't... | 0:44:03 | 0:44:06 | |
We just can't believe this. We just can't believe this is the end. | 0:44:06 | 0:44:10 | |
What do you think Dontay's thinking? | 0:44:10 | 0:44:12 | |
I think he's devastated and I think he's in shock. | 0:44:12 | 0:44:16 | |
He's talking about fighting and he's done so much fighting, | 0:44:16 | 0:44:21 | |
and based on what the doctors are saying, | 0:44:21 | 0:44:23 | |
it seems like maybe now isn't the time to fight, you know. | 0:44:23 | 0:44:28 | |
Maybe now is the time to try and be comfortable... | 0:44:28 | 0:44:31 | |
I'd fight for life - I certainly would. | 0:44:31 | 0:44:33 | |
I mean, what? Sit there and just die? | 0:44:33 | 0:44:36 | |
No, I wouldn't do it and I wouldn't encourage him to do it. | 0:44:36 | 0:44:40 | |
But to lay there and just, you know, do nothing - | 0:44:40 | 0:44:44 | |
I don't think that's the answer. | 0:44:44 | 0:44:46 | |
It sounds like that's what the doctors are saying. | 0:44:46 | 0:44:49 | |
They can only do what they feel they've been trained to do, you know, | 0:44:49 | 0:44:54 | |
but doctors are humans and they make errors just like everybody else. | 0:44:54 | 0:44:59 | |
Honestly, would you do that? Would you sit up... | 0:44:59 | 0:45:02 | |
You look like a fairly young man yourself. | 0:45:02 | 0:45:05 | |
If someone told you, would you lay up there and just die? | 0:45:05 | 0:45:08 | |
It's so hard to know, to even imagine what would be going | 0:45:08 | 0:45:12 | |
through your head in that situation. | 0:45:12 | 0:45:15 | |
Well, you know, I'm older - I'm in my late 50s - and I wouldn't do it. | 0:45:15 | 0:45:20 | |
I've...I'm not ready to give up. | 0:45:20 | 0:45:23 | |
Are you in a position to, sort of, put your foot down | 0:45:23 | 0:45:26 | |
and say, "We want to try more things"? | 0:45:26 | 0:45:29 | |
Yeah, but according to what they told me, they've gone over | 0:45:29 | 0:45:34 | |
and beyond what they would have done. | 0:45:34 | 0:45:37 | |
So... | 0:45:39 | 0:45:40 | |
Two days after the bad news about his cell count, Javier and Adriana | 0:45:58 | 0:46:02 | |
held a small gathering of friends and family at the hospital. | 0:46:02 | 0:46:05 | |
So today Javier and Adriana proclaim their love to the world, | 0:46:06 | 0:46:10 | |
and everyone here, we rejoice with and for them. | 0:46:10 | 0:46:13 | |
Javier Alonso Galvan, | 0:46:13 | 0:46:17 | |
do you choose Adriana Guadalope Rodriguez | 0:46:17 | 0:46:21 | |
to be your lawfully wedded wife and your beloved one? | 0:46:21 | 0:46:26 | |
And if so, please say, "I do." | 0:46:26 | 0:46:28 | |
I do. | 0:46:28 | 0:46:30 | |
"Adriana, I give you my hand and my heart." | 0:46:30 | 0:46:33 | |
Adriana, I give you my hand and my heart. | 0:46:33 | 0:46:36 | |
"As I join my life to yours." | 0:46:36 | 0:46:38 | |
As I join my life to yours. | 0:46:38 | 0:46:40 | |
-"With this ring..." -With this ring... | 0:46:40 | 0:46:42 | |
-"..I thee wed." -..I thee wed. | 0:46:42 | 0:46:45 | |
"Javier, I give you my hand and my heart." | 0:46:45 | 0:46:48 | |
Javier, I give you my hand and my heart. | 0:46:48 | 0:46:50 | |
"As I join my life to yours." | 0:46:50 | 0:46:52 | |
As I join my life to yours. | 0:46:52 | 0:46:54 | |
"With this ring... | 0:46:54 | 0:46:56 | |
"With this ring..." | 0:46:56 | 0:46:58 | |
With this ring... | 0:46:58 | 0:46:59 | |
-"..I thee wed." -..I thee wed. | 0:46:59 | 0:47:01 | |
"And with all that I am..." | 0:47:01 | 0:47:02 | |
And with all that I am... | 0:47:02 | 0:47:03 | |
-"..I cherish you." -..I cherish you. | 0:47:03 | 0:47:05 | |
-"And love you." -And I love you. | 0:47:05 | 0:47:07 | |
It is really a great honour and privilege to pronounce you... | 0:47:07 | 0:47:12 | |
..husband and wife. | 0:47:13 | 0:47:16 | |
-Thank you. -Thank you. | 0:47:17 | 0:47:19 | |
OTHERS CHEER | 0:47:19 | 0:47:21 | |
Mr and Mrs Javier and Adriana Galvan. | 0:47:24 | 0:47:28 | |
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE | 0:47:28 | 0:47:30 | |
Two days after the ceremony, Javier started a new round of chemo. | 0:47:38 | 0:47:42 | |
He died the following day. | 0:47:44 | 0:47:46 | |
His end was probably hastened by his treatment, | 0:47:46 | 0:47:50 | |
but he had also died fighting. | 0:47:50 | 0:47:52 | |
Though I'd been just a small part of Javier's last days on Earth, | 0:47:56 | 0:48:00 | |
I couldn't help grieving his loss. | 0:48:00 | 0:48:03 | |
I realised that for young people who have hopes and dreams, to ask them | 0:48:03 | 0:48:08 | |
not to take everything on offer to keep going is almost impossible. | 0:48:08 | 0:48:13 | |
Two months after I first arrived at the hospital, | 0:48:21 | 0:48:23 | |
I had an extraordinary call. | 0:48:23 | 0:48:26 | |
In a turn of events the doctors were having trouble explaining, | 0:48:26 | 0:48:29 | |
Langston's family had got their miracle. | 0:48:29 | 0:48:32 | |
Hi, Langston, I'm Heather. Do you remember me? | 0:48:34 | 0:48:39 | |
Langston? Who's this? | 0:48:39 | 0:48:43 | |
Who's that? | 0:48:43 | 0:48:44 | |
My sister! | 0:48:46 | 0:48:47 | |
Oh, my God. Oh, my God! | 0:48:47 | 0:48:52 | |
Can you tell me who's that? Who's that, Langston? | 0:48:56 | 0:49:00 | |
My sister. | 0:49:00 | 0:49:01 | |
Oh, your sister. | 0:49:01 | 0:49:03 | |
Oh, I'm so happy you're OK. | 0:49:05 | 0:49:09 | |
I really am so happy. | 0:49:09 | 0:49:11 | |
Yay! OK, I won't cry. | 0:49:11 | 0:49:14 | |
Oh, wow! | 0:49:15 | 0:49:17 | |
Who's that? | 0:49:21 | 0:49:23 | |
Who's that? His name is Louis. | 0:49:23 | 0:49:25 | |
We're from the BBC from Britain. | 0:49:25 | 0:49:28 | |
We've been filming you while you've been ill. | 0:49:28 | 0:49:31 | |
This is amazing. | 0:49:33 | 0:49:34 | |
Watch. I love you, Langston. | 0:49:34 | 0:49:37 | |
I love you, Langston. | 0:49:38 | 0:49:40 | |
-I love you, too. -See? "I love you too." | 0:49:40 | 0:49:42 | |
You don't seem that surprised. | 0:49:42 | 0:49:44 | |
I already told you what was going to happen. | 0:49:44 | 0:49:47 | |
I'm grateful and I'm thankful to God. | 0:49:47 | 0:49:49 | |
I knew he was going to be OK and I know he's going to get better. | 0:49:49 | 0:49:53 | |
Do you believe this was a miracle? | 0:49:53 | 0:49:54 | |
Yes. He said yes, too. | 0:49:54 | 0:49:57 | |
So, that was, um, unexpected... | 0:50:03 | 0:50:07 | |
-Yeah. -..would you say? | 0:50:07 | 0:50:08 | |
Yeah, that was really unexpected, so I just called | 0:50:08 | 0:50:12 | |
one of the neurologists too, er, that I was working with in the ICU | 0:50:12 | 0:50:17 | |
and he said, "You know, it's like a one in a million." | 0:50:17 | 0:50:21 | |
To recap, what had originally been said - | 0:50:21 | 0:50:24 | |
and this is some while ago, a couple of weeks ago now - | 0:50:24 | 0:50:27 | |
was that the best-case scenario | 0:50:27 | 0:50:30 | |
-was a vegetative state. -Yes. | 0:50:30 | 0:50:32 | |
With minimal high brain function, so they said that he would | 0:50:32 | 0:50:37 | |
basically not follow instructions, not really be a person. | 0:50:37 | 0:50:41 | |
-Right. Exactly. -And that was the best-case scenario. | 0:50:41 | 0:50:44 | |
-That was the best-case scenario. -Based on the scans. | 0:50:44 | 0:50:47 | |
Based on the scans, and what I was told by the neurologist | 0:50:47 | 0:50:50 | |
and my experience with this, | 0:50:50 | 0:50:52 | |
so usually if people don't wake up right away, like in a week or so, | 0:50:52 | 0:50:57 | |
then they don't wake up, so... | 0:50:57 | 0:50:59 | |
But looking back on it, does that mean you and your colleagues | 0:50:59 | 0:51:03 | |
made a mistake in this instance, or were you right to... | 0:51:03 | 0:51:07 | |
manage expectations and base your assessment on the likeliest outcome? | 0:51:07 | 0:51:13 | |
I guess, you know... | 0:51:13 | 0:51:16 | |
I think that most people, | 0:51:16 | 0:51:18 | |
I think it's appropriate to say, | 0:51:18 | 0:51:23 | |
"This is the best-case scenario based on all the evidence that we have, | 0:51:23 | 0:51:27 | |
"and based on most patients in this situation," | 0:51:27 | 0:51:31 | |
so, er, I think it would... | 0:51:31 | 0:51:33 | |
It would be inappropriate to give anybody hope | 0:51:33 | 0:51:36 | |
when the experts - the neuro-intensivists | 0:51:36 | 0:51:40 | |
and neurologists - are saying there's no chance for a meaningful recovery. | 0:51:40 | 0:51:43 | |
As we say, they didn't read the textbook. | 0:51:43 | 0:51:45 | |
He didn't read the textbook - he's supposed to be brain... | 0:51:45 | 0:51:48 | |
You know, a vegetable, but he's not, he's waking up, | 0:51:48 | 0:51:51 | |
so that's a miracle, I guess. | 0:51:51 | 0:51:53 | |
Is it possible he'll make a full recovery? | 0:51:53 | 0:51:55 | |
I don't know. I really don't know, you know, | 0:51:55 | 0:51:59 | |
I... God, wouldn't that be great? | 0:51:59 | 0:52:02 | |
It would make it really hard to have these conversations | 0:52:02 | 0:52:05 | |
with other families, but, um... | 0:52:05 | 0:52:06 | |
But I think that would be amazing, yeah. | 0:52:06 | 0:52:09 | |
Yeah, that would be so exciting. | 0:52:09 | 0:52:11 | |
I was on my way to see Dontay. | 0:52:37 | 0:52:39 | |
After five months and ten days in the hospital, | 0:52:39 | 0:52:41 | |
he'd taken the step of accepting | 0:52:41 | 0:52:43 | |
that the Cedars-Sinai doctors could do nothing further for him. | 0:52:43 | 0:52:46 | |
How are you feeling? | 0:52:46 | 0:52:48 | |
I feel good. | 0:52:48 | 0:52:50 | |
I put on my... This is the jacket and hat | 0:52:50 | 0:52:53 | |
I said I was going to wear when I leave out of here - | 0:52:53 | 0:52:56 | |
it's what I came here in. | 0:52:56 | 0:52:58 | |
So whatever experience can... You know, | 0:53:00 | 0:53:04 | |
I can embody and, you know, | 0:53:04 | 0:53:07 | |
be involved in it and on to the new legacy. | 0:53:07 | 0:53:10 | |
How is your outlook? | 0:53:10 | 0:53:12 | |
As far as...? | 0:53:12 | 0:53:13 | |
General outlook - are you feeling positive? | 0:53:13 | 0:53:16 | |
Um, I've always been optimistic... | 0:53:16 | 0:53:19 | |
Um...I'm definitely... | 0:53:19 | 0:53:21 | |
I think this is a better move for me | 0:53:21 | 0:53:23 | |
because now I can look for other measures of medications. | 0:53:23 | 0:53:28 | |
I have, you know, too much life to live. | 0:53:28 | 0:53:32 | |
I think I can really either beat this or extend the time, at least. | 0:53:32 | 0:53:39 | |
Hi, Dr Gould. | 0:53:39 | 0:53:41 | |
Hi, Dontay, how are you? | 0:53:41 | 0:53:43 | |
Good. | 0:53:43 | 0:53:45 | |
-Yeah? -Mm-hm. -Are you comfortable? | 0:53:45 | 0:53:47 | |
Yes. | 0:53:47 | 0:53:48 | |
Good. Any pain? | 0:53:48 | 0:53:50 | |
No, not so far. | 0:53:50 | 0:53:52 | |
No? OK. | 0:53:52 | 0:53:54 | |
No pain. | 0:53:54 | 0:53:55 | |
Once you get home, the hospice team is going to be there | 0:53:55 | 0:53:58 | |
to help take care of you. And like we talked about before, | 0:53:58 | 0:54:01 | |
I won't be seeing you at home, | 0:54:01 | 0:54:03 | |
but I'll be talking with the hospice team | 0:54:03 | 0:54:05 | |
and helping to take care of you with them. | 0:54:05 | 0:54:07 | |
It's been a pleasure working with you for 100 and how many days? | 0:54:07 | 0:54:13 | |
Lord have mercy! | 0:54:13 | 0:54:14 | |
Well, putting it all together, it's probably been around nine months - | 0:54:14 | 0:54:17 | |
maybe a little longer than that. | 0:54:17 | 0:54:19 | |
All right, Doctor, see you soon. | 0:54:19 | 0:54:21 | |
-OK. -Thank you. -Bye, Dontay. -Bye. | 0:54:21 | 0:54:24 | |
Dontay's been on a journey of acceptance to do with him | 0:54:28 | 0:54:34 | |
not really wanting to face what's going on, to some extent. | 0:54:34 | 0:54:38 | |
Do you know where he is on that journey now? | 0:54:38 | 0:54:41 | |
He's still on that journey towards acceptance. | 0:54:41 | 0:54:44 | |
He's not quite there yet. | 0:54:44 | 0:54:46 | |
Today, he was able to talk with me about hospice a little bit. | 0:54:46 | 0:54:50 | |
It's been difficult for him to look at going home, | 0:54:50 | 0:54:55 | |
that he's going home on a hospice. | 0:54:55 | 0:54:57 | |
He's been looking at it a lot as, | 0:54:57 | 0:54:59 | |
"Well, he's going home, he's leaving the hospital," | 0:54:59 | 0:55:01 | |
but not really what that means - | 0:55:01 | 0:55:03 | |
that it's about taking care of him as he's going through the dying process | 0:55:03 | 0:55:07 | |
and accepting that he is dying. | 0:55:07 | 0:55:09 | |
And, er, even now he's still, you know, | 0:55:09 | 0:55:12 | |
praying and hoping for a miracle. | 0:55:12 | 0:55:14 | |
Has there ever been a time when you've felt if he had not been | 0:55:14 | 0:55:17 | |
so, um, keen on beating the cancer | 0:55:17 | 0:55:22 | |
that he would have not put himself through so much suffering? | 0:55:22 | 0:55:25 | |
I... | 0:55:25 | 0:55:26 | |
His strong willpower of wanting to live | 0:55:28 | 0:55:30 | |
and needing to live and being willing to go through painful procedures | 0:55:30 | 0:55:35 | |
and interventions that he knew would make him feel worse | 0:55:35 | 0:55:38 | |
in the short term, that he knew would bring on more pain in the short term, | 0:55:38 | 0:55:42 | |
for the chance of doing better, for the chance of being better | 0:55:42 | 0:55:45 | |
afterwards, um... | 0:55:45 | 0:55:47 | |
Because of that, yes, he did go through more pain | 0:55:47 | 0:55:49 | |
and more suffering but, you know, | 0:55:49 | 0:55:53 | |
there's not a right or wrong way | 0:55:53 | 0:55:55 | |
to do that and it's a very individual decision on whether somebody... | 0:55:55 | 0:56:00 | |
..is willing to go through that. And for Dontay, it was worth it. | 0:56:02 | 0:56:06 | |
Right, Mr Rogers. Before we go, if I can just get a quick signature. | 0:56:06 | 0:56:11 | |
It's just for consent for us to take you back to your aunt's, right? | 0:56:11 | 0:56:14 | |
-Yes. -All right. Here you go. Just get your signature here. | 0:56:14 | 0:56:18 | |
Six weeks after he was discharged, | 0:56:47 | 0:56:50 | |
Dontay died at his Aunt Bonnie's house, | 0:56:50 | 0:56:52 | |
surrounded by friends and family. | 0:56:52 | 0:56:55 | |
Oh, my God! Hi, Langston! | 0:56:57 | 0:57:01 | |
-APPLAUSE -Hi! | 0:57:01 | 0:57:03 | |
Seven weeks after he woke up, | 0:57:06 | 0:57:08 | |
after intensive rehabilitation at another facility, | 0:57:08 | 0:57:12 | |
Langston paid a visit to the ICU. | 0:57:12 | 0:57:15 | |
-Oh, my gosh! -How you doing? I'm Louis. Nice to meet you properly. | 0:57:15 | 0:57:18 | |
-Wow! -How are you feeling? -I'm good. | 0:57:18 | 0:57:20 | |
-You're good? -Yeah. | 0:57:20 | 0:57:21 | |
These people - everybody is just so excited that you're here. | 0:57:21 | 0:57:25 | |
We're just... You're a miracle - you know that, right? | 0:57:25 | 0:57:28 | |
Yeah. Yeah. | 0:57:28 | 0:57:29 | |
What's the first thing you remember? | 0:57:29 | 0:57:31 | |
-Er, nothing, really. -You don't remember? -Just waking up. | 0:57:31 | 0:57:34 | |
Where do you remember waking up? | 0:57:34 | 0:57:36 | |
At the other hospital. | 0:57:36 | 0:57:37 | |
At the other hospital? So you don't remember... | 0:57:37 | 0:57:39 | |
Cos when woke up here it was right before you were about to go, | 0:57:39 | 0:57:42 | |
and that was amazing just to see that, yeah, yeah. | 0:57:42 | 0:57:47 | |
-Congratulations. -Thank you. | 0:57:47 | 0:57:49 | |
-Wow! Do you want to see the room where you were? -Yeah. | 0:57:49 | 0:57:53 | |
Yeah, come on down. | 0:57:53 | 0:57:54 | |
There's nobody in there, right? | 0:57:54 | 0:57:58 | |
These are all the people that took care of you. | 0:57:58 | 0:58:01 |