Doctors advise family to turn off Mandela’s life support machine

DOCTORS treating Nelson Mandela have advised his family to turn off his life support machine, since according to them, he is in a “permanent vegetative state.”

Also, a legal filing related to a family dispute over reburying the remains of Mandela’s three children indicated on Thursday that Mandela “is in a permanent vegetative state and is assisted in breathing by a life support machine.”

According to AFP, Mandela’s family have been advised by the medical practitioners that his life support machine should be switched off.

The family had earlier confirmed that Mandela “is being kept alive by a breathing machine,” while restoring the family gravesite on Thursday.

Earlier on Thursday, court documents had shown that Mandela faces “impending death.”

Mandela’s health is “perilous” and he is being kept alive by life support, according to documents filed in the court case that resulted in the remains of the former president’s three deceased children being reburied on Thursday in their original graves.

“The anticipation of his impending death is based on real and substantial grounds,” the court filing said.

“He’s basically gone,” said Charlene Smith, an authorised biographer of the former anti-apartheid leader. “He’s not there. He’s not there.”

Doctors claimed that “a younger person putting on mechanical ventilation, life support can be weaned off the machine and recover, but that it can be difficult or impossible for an older person.

“The longer a person is on ventilation, the less the chance of recovery, the chief executive of the Faculty of Consulting Physicians of South Africa told AP.

“Usually if a person does need that, any person, not keeping in mind his age at all, for any person it would be indicative of a grave illness,” Kok said.
“When they say “perilous” I think that would be a fair description,” the doctor said.

In Mandela’s hometown, Qunu, on Thursday, the bodies of three of his children were returned to their original resting site following the court order.

The reburial took place in Qunu, where Mandela grew up and where the former president has said he wants to be buried. Forensic tests earlier confirmed the remains were those of Mandela’s children.

Mandela’s grandson, Mandla Mandela moved the bodies to his village of Mvezo, Nelson Mandela’s birthplace, in 2011.

The two towns are about 25 kilometres (15 miles) apart. Fifteen Mandela family members pursued court action last week to force the grandson to move the bodies back to their original burial site.