After the Heart Attack – Sister Rosemary Flanigan, PhD

In early 2012, at age 85, Dr. Rosemary Flanigan suffered and survived a heart attack. Fifteen years earlier, Dr. Flanigan wrote: “It makes me mad. There’s a pervasive assumption out there that should I, one day, have a coronary infarct, I would want to be resuscitated. That is simply not true. I am 71 years old and in good health…So when I am doing what I enjoy doing and am fortunate enough to suffer an infarct rather than a slow and painful death from cancer or ALS or the darkening of Alzheimer’s, then I want to be let go.” In this recording on September 25, 2012, Dr. Terry Rosell, Rosemary Flanigan Chair at the Center, questions Dr. Flanigan about how her views on end of life and advance care planning may have changed since her heart attack. Dr. Flanigan explains that the heart attack made her reflect on how careful we must be in our advance directives and the importance of choosing a surrogate decision-maker. (Sept. 25, 2012)