Nov 06, 2013 10:47 AM EST By Staff Reporter, UniversityHerald Reporter

After falling 16 feet from a tree during a hunting trip, Tim Bowers, 32, sustained severe spinal injuries that would leave him paralyzed from the neck down and potentially unable to breathe on his own ever again, the Associated Press reported. 

Bowers' mental faculties, remained intact enough to place the avid hunter in a terrible and unique position. Once doctors roused him from his medically-induced coma, Bowers could choose whether he wanted to live on life support for the rest of his life or die on his own terms. Bowers chose to end life support, the AP reported. 

Knowing his views on the issue gave Bowers' family the idea to put the decision in his hands, according to The AP. He'd previously told his wife, Abbey, whom he married earlier this year, that he'd never want to spend the rest of his life in a wheel chair.

"No outcome was ever going to be the one that we really want," Abbey said. "But I felt that he did it on his terms in the end."

"We just asked him, 'Do you want this?' And he shook his head emphatically no," his sister, Jenny Shultz, said.

Once conscious, Bowers couldn't speak with the ventilator tube still in place. Doctors said he'd be able to speak without it, but that he'd eventually struggle, and did he want it re-inserted if that was the case? Bowers said no.

He survived five more hours accompanied by 75 friends and family. Throughout songs and prayers, Bowers never changed his mind, The AP reported.

Art Caplan, director of the medical ethics program at New York University, said patients will often change their minds after seeing a spiritual adviser, but Bowers seemed definitive in his decision, according to friends and family.

"I just remember him saying so many times that he loved us all and that he lived a great life," Schultz said. "At one point, he was saying, 'I'm ready. I'm ready.'"

According to Dr. Paul Helft, director of the Charles Warren Fairbanks Center for Medical Ethics in Indianapolis, the decision to end life support is rarely made by the patient, especially after a freak injury like Bower's. More often such situations arise from illnesses like Lou Gerig Disease that affect the body but not the mind, The AP reported.

"We give patients autonomy to make all kinds of decisions about themselves," Helft said. "We've recognized that it's important that patients have the right to self-determination." 

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