Tampabay: Hard decisions, out of the spotlight

Personal history: Retired from Maas Brothers and living with a daughter. Has three children.

Medical problems: Feeding tube - intended to be temporary - inserted after 2002 stroke. Then suffered heart attack, dementia, pneumonia and inability to swallow or communicate verbally. Daughter brought her home three years ago because doctors gave her only a few days to live.

End-of-life wishes: 1992 living will did not mention feeding tube; she was ambivalent about it in conversation. "What she didn't want was to be actually dying and having people pounding on her and filling her with tubes." Adamantly opposed euthanasia. Thought Dr. Kevorkian was the devil, cheered when Karen Ann Quinlan lived without tubes.

Family decisions: Daughter Yvonne Lipke tends to her mother, with help from husband Alan and county agencies. "We believe life is sacred, life is precious. People who end life early are missing a lesson."

Jay Cee Carlton, Dunedin

Died March 4 at age 88.

Personal history: Retired construction superintendent and Marine veteran of World War II. Survived by wife, three sons, four daughters, 13 grandchildren and 21 great-grandchildren.

Medical problems: Developed dementia. Doctors told him about six months before his death that he was terminal. Family placed him in a nursing home in January.

End-of-life wishes: Filled out a living will years ago, but did not specifically address feeding tubes. After he became sick, he signed paperwork appointing his stepson as his health care surrogate to make medical decisions if he could not. Told his family he didn't want to prolong his life and "I want to go see Jesus."

Family decisions: When he stopped eating, stepson declined the feeding tube. Nursing home staff said they would have had to insert the tube if Mr. Carlton had not appointed his stepson as a surrogate. Mr. Carlton died about three weeks later.

Source of information: Stepson David Bumbalough. "We did carry out his wishes and that's all we can do," he said. "If a person wants to just pass on like my stepfather did, I don't think the state or anyone else has the right to step in and say anything about it."

Personal history: Carpet cleaner and longtime resident of Hudson. Survived by his parents, Mary and Norman Hagel, two sisters, a brother and a nephew.

Medical problems: Undiagnosed hepatitis-C liver damage, probably stemming from a tattoo, complicated by surgery from leg fracture that became infected. Was in hospital for weight loss, nausea and swollen stomach when liver capacity plummeted. He could not swallow and was moved to hospice.

End-of-life wishes: Did not have a living will. Occasionally showed signs in hospice that he understood what people were saying, but could not communicate verbally with family.

Family decisions: Based on doctor advice that nothing could be done, agreed to hospice care and no feeding tube. He died after eight days. "We didn't want another Terri Schiavo case, keeping someone alive who is not supposed to be." Later, family members had second thoughts.

Source of information: Sister Kathleen Svehla, who now wonders if the family should have inserted the feeding tube to see if her brother might improve. He sucked on the sponge when nurses swabbed his lips and his stomach growled. "I felt like, maybe, he was saying, "Help me. I want out. I'm so thirsty. I'm so hungry.' Watching him there for eight days was heartbreaking." Svehla and other family members are now thinking about changing their living wills so feeding tubes will be maintained.

[Family photo]

Henry Hester, a retired Army veteran, did not have a living will, but told his wife, Marilyn, "Please don't let them hook me up to those machines."

Henry K. Hester, Pinellas Park

Died March 7 at age 83

Personal history: Retired press reelsman for the St. Petersburg Times and Army veteran of World War II. Survived by wife, a son, a daughter, a stepson, four grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

Medical problems: Diagnosed with cancer in January. Spent the last few weeks of his life in Bay Pines VA Medical Center under hospice care.

End-of-life wishes: Did not have a living will. Declined chemotherapy and told his wife: "Please don't let them hook me up to those machines."

Family decisions: They went along with his wishes. He stopped eating three days before his death.

Source of information: Wife Marilyn. "He said "when God is ready for me, don't hold me back. Let me go.' And I promised him right there that I would let him go. He was a Christian man. He had great faith."

Personal history: A medical technologist for Bay Pines VA Medical Center and eucharistic minister for Blessed Trinity Catholic Church. Survived by his wife and two children, a 14-year-old girl and an 11-year-old boy.

Medical problems: Diagnosed in September with pancreatic cancer. Fought the cancer with chemotherapy, but knew early on he was going to die.

End-of-life wishes: Got a living will after his diagnosis in which he declined all life-prolonging measures, including feeding tubes.

Family decisions: They saw his wishes through. His wife is now getting a living will with similar instructions. Mr. Sikora's family was told in early March that he had only about four weeks left to live. But after four days he died in his sleep while at home under hospice care.

Source of information: Wife Nela. "He did not want to put our children through what's going on with the Terri Schiavo case. He was very adamant about that."

Hard decisions, out of the spotlight

Every day, Tampa Bay residents grapple with end-of-life issues. Times reporters interviewed several of them, ranging from a woman determined to keep her mother alive to a family that "didn't want another Terri Schiavo case."