Jeff Conaway Dies at 60 After Life Support Withdrawal
Jeff Conaway died Friday morning, a day after being taken off life support. Conaway was 60.
There are varying reports on what the actor who starred in "Taxi" and "Grease" actually died of. While some have reported the death was a result of a drug overdose, Dr. Drew Pinsky, who treated Conaway for substance abuse, said he suffered from pneumonia and sepsis.
Still, his long abuse of prescription drugs took a toll and his body gave out, according to TMZ. He had been in a medically-induced coma for two weeks and doctors told the family that he had no brain function ever since he was hospitalized in Encino, Calif.
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His feeding tube was removed Thursday, followed by the ventilator, which was breathing for the star.
When Conaway was first discovered unconscious on May 11, his manager, Phil Brock, suspected that he likely overdosed on painkillers. Pinsky, who treated Conaway during VH1's "Celebrity Rehab," said later that there was no evidence of an intentional overdose.
In a hopeful tweet on May 20, Pinsky said Conaway looked stable and like he would recover from his pneumonia.
A day later, however, he wrote on his Twitter page: "My hopes & prayers r with him & his family! #jeffconaway”yes,we all need to pray for him.Not doing well today suddenly."
Conaway died after he was taken off life support.
Pinsky tweeted Friday: "looked like he might pull through last weekend, but unfortunately that was not to be. Please continue to send your well wishes and prayers."
While most evangelicals oppose pulling the plug or the intentional termination of a dependent human being, they affirm taking a patient off life support in some cases.
The National Association of Evangelicals' 1997 resolution states, "We believe there is a profound moral distinction between allowing a person to die, on the one hand; and killing on the other (Deut. 5:17). We affirm the ethic 'always to care, never to kill.'"
In cases where patients are terminally ill, death appears imminent and treatment offers no medical hope for a cure, the NAE says it is "morally appropriate to request the withdrawal of life-support systems, allowing natural death to occur."
More specifically, that includes cases where there is extensive brain injury and clear medical indication that the patient has suffered brain death (permanent unconscious state), and where no medical treatment can reverse the process.
Though an emotional and difficult issue, the NAE says, "We believe that medical treatment that serves only to prolong the dying process has little value. It is better that the dying process be allowed to continue and the patient permitted to die."
