A friend is seeking advice: I've been reporting a story for three months about a woman with MS who is trying to get off her ventilator and breathe on her own. She hasn't made much progress with getting off the vent and after a hospital stay for five days for pneumonia she was feeling pretty down. I was with her this past Easter Sunday when she told me that the previous week she had essentially tried to kill herself by pulling out her vent and expecting herself to pass out. She also considered downing the entire bottle of her blood thinner meds, but decided against it because it would be painful and she said she was too much of a wimp. I'm curious what other journalists would do in this instance. Would you feel the need to tell a relative if your subject threatens suicide or would you do nothing and wait to see what happens because afterall it's all part of the story and you can't get involved?
Dramatic situation, I know, but what do we do? If we weren't there to witness, this wouldn't be a story, but we are, and it is, so where do we take action?
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