Gary Sinise Helps Vets; Hunter Chooses to End Life Support After Fall From Tree Stand
BALDWIN: Monday is Veterans Day, a day to recognize the men and women who have served in our armed forces. But Emmy-award winning actor Gary Sinise is trying to honor veterans each and every day. Here's how he and his iconic character Lieutenant Dan are impacting our world.</s>GARY SINISE, ACTOR, "FORREST GUMP": Thought I'd try out my sea legs.</s>TOM HANKS, ACTOR, "FORREST GUMP": But you ain't got no legs, Lieutenant Dan.</s>CHRIS CUOMO, CNN HOST, "NEW DAY": Long before Gary Sinise played Vietnam veteran Lieutenant Dan in "Forrest Gump," he was a passionate supporter of the military.</s>SINISE: Well, I have a long history with working with veterans starting with the relationships that I have in my own personal family My dad was -- served in the Navy. My two uncles were in World War II. My grandfather served in World War</s>I.  CUOMO: With the success of "Forrest Gump," wounded veterans began to identify with Sinise.</s>SINISE: How many veterans we got here tonight?</s>CUOMO: He formed the Lieutenant Dan Band and has entertained troops around the world with the USO. The actor says his call to action became very clear after 9/11.</s>SINISE: When our men and women started deploying to Iraq and Afghanistan, they started getting hurt and killed. Having Vietnam veterans in my family, it was very troubling to think that our men and women would come home to a nation that didn't appreciate them.</s>CUOMO: So he started his own charity dedicated to veterans. The Gary Sinise Foundation helps build customized homes for the severely wounded and helps vets find civilian careers.</s>SINISE: I have met hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of wounded veterans who continue to not let their circumstance get them down. Countless Lieutenant Dans out there that inspire me every day.</s>BALDWIN: It is one of those questions many people prepare for, but all of us hope never to hear, that being whether to end life support. Thirty-two-year-old Tim Bowers chose to take himself off life support after falling some 16 feet from a tree from the stand he was on when he was hunting. Bowers was paralyzed from the neck down, and the Associated Press reports his family brought him out of sedation in order to ask what he wanted to do. Let me read this for you. "We just asked him, 'Do you want this?' And he shook his head emphatically no, said his sister, Jenny Shultz. "Doctors asked him the same question and got the same responses. They then removed his breathing tube." Bowers had just gotten married. His now widow is pregnant. Joining me now, Arthur Caplan, the head of the division of medical ethics at NYU Langone Medical Center. Arthur, Tim Bowers, we know, died, hours later. It is heartbreaking to think about this, but just from your expertise, how rare is a situation like this? Can a person who has just learned he will be paralyzed for the rest of his life make this kind of decision?</s>ARTHUR CAPLAN, DIVISION OF MEDICAL ETHICS, NYU LANGONE MEDICAL CENTER: Well, Brooke, it's a terrible, tragic case, but there are some lessons here. So the first is everybody has a right, as a competent adult, to say no to medical treatment, whether it's a Jehovah's Witness who says no to blood transfusion or this gentleman who said no to artificial ventilation. That's clear. The problem is when you have a terrible accident like this, while they're rare, people often say, having been terribly burned or injured or they know they're paralyzed, that they don't want to live. Some adjust. Some come around after a few days or a week or a couple weeks and say, I've changed my mind. I can deal with this. This gentleman made a decision under, let's say, relatively quick circumstances. I know there are those who are going to say, did they give him enough time to think about whether he could live as a paralyzed person?</s>BALDWIN: Isn't that a valid question?</s>CAPLAN: A very valid question. I'll tell you what makes me feel more comfortable about the case. You read the A.P. excerpt with his family. His family had had a conversation with him about a month earlier saying, what if you got severely injured? What would you want? He was adamant, no life in a wheelchair. I don't want to be paralyzed. That makes me far more comfortable with this than if you wake up, last thing you know you're in a tree, now you're here. What do you think? That's a tougher call, which is a reminder, you have to have that conversation. I know it's hard. Thanksgiving is coming. Use this case, talk to your friends, talk to your family. Say this is what I would want. I would want everything, or you know, I'm not a person who would want to be wheelchair bound.</s>BALDWIN: A tough conversation, a great point. What happens, though, Arthur, in the hours after we have this 32-year- old man, they bring him to consciousness out of sedation to be able to say no, I don't want to live? What happens in those hours until the point of death? What's discussed? Are there papers that are signed?</s>CAPLAN: Brooke, it probably doesn't require signatures. His oral statement twice, once to the family, once to the doctors, probably would have done it. The family will gather. They're going to make sure he doesn't suffer at all. You know, if you stop breathing, that can be difficult and burdensome, so they're going to give him enough oxygen to go peacefully. The family assembled, talked to him, sang their songs together. He had what many people would consider a reasonably good death. Just an awful circumstance, again a reminder, you don't have to be an old, old person to sometimes face life-and-death decisions.</s>BALDWIN: It is a reminder to have that conversation with your loved ones soon. Arthur Caplan, thank you so much.</s>CAPLAN: My pleasure.</s>BALDWIN: We, of course, wish the family well in such a horrendous time. We'll be right back.