Autopsy

The subject is dead. The history of the dying is as follows:

Twenty or thirty years ago, the subject had opportunities to broaden horizons and take actions to ensure long term flexibility and health. Like many others, the subject preferred to continue making the same lifestyle choices that were good during the early years, but that had outlived their usefulness. The subject not only refused to make needed changes, but began to speak out against those who did change and refused to work with them in the community. I believe this is the point when the subject began to die.

As the years went by, the subject became further entrenched in the old ways, even as life and vitality continued to wane. Friends and family members began to leave and find others to spend time with. The subject began to shrink and muscles began to atrophy. A form of dementia set in and the subject began to withdraw and close out the rest of the world, only opening the door to the occasional visitor. Visitors were few and far between, and those who did come quickly realized that the subject's ways of believing and acting were not for them.

The old caretaker retired, and a new one arrived with dreams of revitalizing the subject. What the new caretaker and the subject's few remaining friends didn't realize was that the subject was already too far gone. Due to a lack of action, the muscles had deteriorated to the point where some of them had actually disappeared. This caused some of the internal organs to also lose function and die.

The subject was placed on life support in an attempt to keep certain functions working. These functions were seen as essential to the caretaker and those still gathered around the subject. What they didn't realize was that the way these functions were performed, even some of the functions themselves, were actually contributing to the subject's demise.

During the last few years life continued to drain out of the subject. Even the children, whom the subject professed to love, stopped coming around. Many of the ones who worked so hard to revitalize the subject have gone elsewhere.

The subject was declared dead on Sunday, September 8, 2008 at 11:00 AM. Artificial life support will probably continue, but any real life is gone.