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Indiana Hunter Chooses To End Life Support After Accident

By Kamal Nayan | Update Date: Nov 07, 2013 09:42 AM EST

An Indiana hunter who was injured recently, got to decide himself if he wanted to live or die. The avid outdoorsman was severely injured in a hunting accident on Saturday.

After the accident Tim Bowers was left paralyzed and doctors said he could be on a ventilator for life. His family wanted him to decide what he wanted to do?

Once the doctors agreed to it, Bowers chose to avoid any extra measures to stay live. Eventually he died Sunday just few hours after his breathing tube was removed.

The 32-year-old hunter was hunting deer when he fell 16 feet from a tree. After which he suffered a severe spinal injury which paralyzed his from his entire shoulders down.

Experts felt that it was rare for any patient to decide so early after the injury to remove the life supports. Generally the call to remove life support is left to relatives itself.

“I just remember him saying so many times that he loved us all and that he lived a great life,” said Jenny Shultz, Bowers’s sister, according to ABC News. “At one point, he was saying, ‘I’m ready. I’m ready.’”

Though there are cases in which patients usually makes the decision. This involves a debilitating illness such as Lou Gehrig’s disease.

“We give patients autonomy to make all kinds of decisions about themselves,”said Dr. Paul Helft, director of the Charles Warren Fairbanks Center for Medical Ethics in Indianapolis, according to ABC News. “We’ve recognized that it’s important that patients have the right to self-determination.”

Shultz knew that not everyone would make the similar decision but she is thankful to her brother as he chose for himself.

“No outcome was ever going to be the one that we really want,” she added, according to ABC News. “But I felt that he did it on his terms in the end.”

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