המנעות מהחייה במקרה של כשל לבבי

I am in great need for guidance in the following urgent matter. Two days before Yom Kippur my wife suffered a major heart attack and I brought her to the Jewish General Hospital of – – – . She is only fifty-two, but as a girl she had rheumatic fever and she has had two major strokes. Ha-Shem has been kind to us and we have been blessed by two children and grandchildren, thank G-d.

The doctors attempted an angioplasty but it had to be cut short and she was rushed into intensive care. A week later, they tried the procedure again, this time successfully, but she desperately needs bypasses and valve work. Immediately after the second angioplasty she contracted pneumonia and a week later the doctors told us that they were grabbing at straws and only a miracle could save her. If her heart were to fail again they would not revive her; it was not ethical.

This was just before Shabbos. I met with their ethicist the next week. He maintained that in a case where the patient is receiving maximum care and was not responding, the chances of revival were statistically so slim that it was not ethical to subject the patient to the pain. He said this was strictly a medical question, over which we had no say. Our only option was to move her to a different hospital.

First of all, their statement that we are free to move her is pure sophistry because if we move her we murder her. Secondly, I have been begging them to consider an admitted, non-standard procedure that a major cardiologist in Texas found useful and lifesaving. They said it was unethical to use an unproven, unrecognized procedure. It seems like manslaughter and negligence to me, refusing to try a procedure used by a recognized peer when by their own admission they are giving up.

Finally, of course, as an Orthodox Jew, I don’t see how can I allow these people to make such final decisions. I asked a lawyer but he did not have any idea how to deal with this. I am anxiously waiting to hear from you.