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Our Story – The Story Behind the Life Changing Moment:

In 2011, as our mother lay in a state of unconsciousness in a hospital intensive care unit, something really profound happened that changed the direction of our lives forever. This was a gut wrenching discovery. Like a veritable Big Bang, from that genesis this social encyclopedia for independent living began. Lifeopedia.com was born.

It is the breathtaking change that these Vimar Moments make in one’s life that bring a clear understanding of how an individual’s basic right to live with integrity and make informed decisions is extinguished in so many particular ways.

Embracing the need for change, Lifeopedia.com is dedicated to helping people find choices that empower each of us through the exchange of knowledge.

Like many others, through these life altering events, we learned an enormous amount of information about questions we did not know, but should have asked.  But perhaps even more valuable will be Lifeopedia.com’s ability to help us understand things we might already know in a new light. Lifeopedia.com can allow each of us to help others find answers, and choices, knowing that the access to truth is important in all areas, of an empowered and independent life.

It is a testament to the love of family and the family ties that have encouraged us to reach out to tell our story and share our experiences in the hope that it may somehow help one other person through some of life’s most extraordinary and challenging moments.

Lifeopedia.com was created to confront thought-provoking life issues, and subject matters large and small. When we needed help the most, the information was just not there. When the decisions were over and the dust had settled, we had a funeral and no recourse available to us. The damage had been done.

It began when we were told mom was brain dead and no one comes back from brain death. This was a lie. We found out after our mother passed away that brain death is not dead. According to the American Academy of Neurology, the AAN, 2010 Brain Death Guidelines state that brain death is a condition that cannot be determined using Scientific Methods. Brain death is, however, a state of deep coma. Ending life support, ventilation, is still ending someone’s life. Why? Because you stop that person from living by denying them futile comfort care.  I learned, given the latest research, that just because the patient cannot move or react, does not mean they don’t know what is going on around them. Science still has no true way to measure conscious thought. For us it was all about personal integrity and having that integrity in the face of medical opposition.

When the doctors came in and told us they “would do no more for our mother,” in silent prayer, I asked God for a sign. We knew our journey had come to an end and that we must part. We said our good by at 9:09 P.M. that night. The truth is, while God gave me an answer, and had I been stronger and knew then what I know now, I would have made a very different choice. It is something I live with every day with regret. This is why I am telling you my story, through my experiences, so that you will learn and have a choice filled life and never be put through that heartbreak.

While each season of life will always have its ups and downs, with information and truth, you can always choose to do the right things. You do have a choice!

Our Purpose

Our website may cause consternation among those who care to preserve the status quo. We hope Lifeopedia.com will help people learn new things and view things they already know in a new light. We hope this website shakes things up a little. This blog will allow us to share ideas, hope, strength and experience with each other, and become a part of the collective journey to find answers and examine choices as we go through life, knowing that the access to truth is important in all areas, of an empowered and independent life.

Lifeopedia.com is a testament to love of family. Our family ties encouraged us to reach out and share our experiences and the knowledge we learned in the hopes that our story may somehow, some day, help other people faced with the same choices we faced. In these challenging moments, there was nothing available for my family to reach back to help us find choices regarding some of life’s most extraordinary and challenging decisions.

We hope that you enjoy using this website as much as we enjoyed creating it.

“A site for things you should know, but didn’t know to ask.”

Just between friends,

Donna Ellison

Lifeopedia.com Co-Founder