Ed Note: A common fear in aging is the onset of dementia–something not unfamiliar to all of us. Should we all have a dementia directive–the answer in my opinion is “yes.” But will it be honored–the answer is “it depends.” The ethics in this new area of discussion will be touched upon in a talk at Skyline coming up on Tuesday February 18th from 2-3:30 PM titled “Our Lives Our Choices.”
By JoNel Aleccia
Thanks to Allan A. for sending this in.
When she worked on the trading floor of the Chicago Board Options Exchange, long before cellphone calculators, Susan Saran could perform complex math problems in her head. Years later, as one of its top regulators, she was in charge of investigating insider trading deals.
Today, she struggles to remember multiplication tables.
Seven years ago, at age 57, Saran was diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia, a progressive, fatal brain disease. She had started forgetting things, losing focus at the job she had held for three decades. Then tests revealed the grim diagnosis.
“It was absolutely devastating,” Saran, 64, said. “It changed everything. My job ended. I was put out on disability. I was told to establish myself in an [extended] community before I was unable to care for myself.”
Early signs of dementia that family members may notice
So Saran uprooted herself. She sold her home in 2015 and found a bucolic retirement community in rural New York whose website promised “comprehensive health care for life.”
And now, she is fighting with that community over her right to determine how she will die — even though she has made her wishes known in writing. Similar fights could ensnare millions of Americans with dementia and similar end-of-life directives in coming years.