c. 2005 Religion News Service

PORTLAND, Ore. _ An Oregon man’s attempt at doctor-assisted suicide last month took a bizarre turn when he woke from a coma nearly three days later and lived for two more weeks.

David E. Prueitt, 42, who had lung cancer, died at home of natural causes Feb. 15 _ 16 days after he ingested a supposedly lethal dose of medication prescribed by one of his doctors in accordance with Oregon’s Death With Dignity Act.

Barbara Coombs Lee, co-president of the assisted-suicide advocacy group Compassion & Choices, confirmed Prueitt’s case last week after family members went public with details.

“He did take a complete dose and slept soundly for 65 hours,” Lee said. “Then he awakened. He suffered no ill effects. He was fully capable and competent _ and surprised.”

Prueitt’s wife, Lynda Romig Prueitt, recalled that when he woke early Feb. 2, he asked: “What the hell happened? Why am I not dead?”

He survived 13 more days, coherent and alert, she said, before dying of his cancer.

The Prueitt case epitomizes the potential complications surrounding one of the most passionately debated issues in U.S. politics. Doctor-assisted suicide is fraught with medical, legal, religious and ethical controversy. The Bush administration is trying to overturn the Oregon statute, saying it violates federal drug laws. The Supreme Court agreed last month to review the case.

“By any standard, this is a failed attempt,” said Dr. Greg Hamilton, a Portland psychiatrist and former president of Physicians for Compassionate Care, a group against assisted suicide.

“That’s one of the reasons we oppose assisted suicide. The dying process is prolonged and inhumane, and it’s traumatic for the family.”

Oregon is the only state in which doctor-assisted suicide is legal. Under Oregon law, a doctor can prescribe a lethal dose of medication to a terminally ill patient of sound mind who makes the request orally and in writing and meets other requirements. The patient must swallow the drug; it cannot be administered.

During the first six years of the Oregon law, 171 people died by doctor-assisted suicide _ about one in 1,000 deaths. Oregon’s seventh annual report, with 2004 data, is due out next Thursday.

“We now have our first true complication after more than 200 successful cases” of assisted suicide, said Lee, who helped draft the Oregon law. Her group resulted from the recent merger of Portland-based Compassion in Dying Federation and Denver-based End-of-Life Choices.

Lee said her organization plans to ask an independent panel of experts to investigate the failed suicide attempt and write a report on what happened.

During 2001, an assisted-suicide patient took 37 hours to die after ingesting a lethal dose, and in 2003, a patient took 48 hours. But neither regained consciousness.

Prueitt first raised the issue of suicide in October, when his pain became unbearable, his wife said. After he threatened to shoot himself, she said, she approached Compassion in Dying of Oregon, a group that helps patients and families who inquire about doctor-assisted suicide.

Prueitt began the formal process of requesting a doctor-assisted suicide in early January and later received a prescription for 100 capsules of Seconal, a type of barbiturate.

On Jan. 30, dressed in a blue T-shirt and lying on a couch in the living room of his home in Estacada, 23 miles southeast of Portland, Prueitt swallowed the drug overdose. It had been mixed with applesauce and water and sweetened with Lactulose, an anti-constipation drug.

Among those present were his wife, her mother, a friend and two volunteers from Compassion in Dying of Oregon.

In his weakened, emaciated state _ his weight had dropped from nearly 200 pounds to less than 100 _ Prueitt could barely raise the coffee mug to his lips, his wife said.

Within six minutes of swallowing the drug, he fell into a coma, she said. His breathing became fitful, but he did not die.

After waking up nearly three days later, he remained alert and talkative, she said. He chatted by telephone with his brother Steve and friends. Occasionally he asked for water or cigarettes.

Compassion in Dying began its investigation as soon as Prueitt awakened, Lee said, and notified state officials immediately. The Oregon Department of Human Services is investigating “every possible cause” of the failed assisted suicide, Lee said, from the medication used to the absorption rate of the applesauce.

(OPTIONAL TRIM FOLLOWS)

Prueitt’s experience has divided his family. Janice Davidson, Prueitt’s older sister, said she opposes doctor-assisted suicide for religious reasons and was shocked to find out about her brother’s attempted suicide.

“I believe that if his family had been notified, David would not have done this,” she said. She visited him a few days after he woke up from the drug overdose and described him as coherent.

“If it was an assisted suicide, it wasn’t done right.”

Prueitt had an up-and-down life. Relatives described him as a proud, hard-working logger who smoked for years. Records show that he served seven years in prison after a rape conviction.

His grown daughter, DeAnndra Rowland, said her father told her in January that he “wanted to go in his sleep.” He never mentioned doctor-assisted suicide or the Death With Dignity Act, she said.

Prueitt kept his attempted suicide from most relatives and friends, his wife said, because “he didn’t want them to think he was taking the easy way out.”

As problematic as her husband’s death became, his widow said she still supports the law. “I don’t want anybody to get in trouble for this,” she said. “Compassion in Dying did their job.” She said she voted for President Bush but supports Oregon’s law against the administration’s legal challenge.

Two days after Prueitt woke up, he told his wife he had been in the presence of God, she said. By her account, Prueitt said God had rejected his death by suicide and sent him back to live out his days and die a natural death.

Dr. Kenneth Stevens, vice president of Physicians for Compassionate Care and chairman of the radiation oncology department at Oregon Health & Science University, called Prueitt’s death a failed assisted suicide. The most likely reason for such a failure, he said, is that the patient did not consume the complete lethal dose.

“We’ve always been concerned that the dose would not always be lethal and that there would be complications. In this situation, living is considered a complication.”

MO/PH/JL END COLBURN

(Don Colburn is a staff writer for The Oregonian of Portland, Ore.)