Karen Stern’s Final Exit
October 29, 2007, Kingman, Arizona
By Richard N. Côté / dickcote at earthlink.net
Karen Stern, a vivacious 53-year-old,
guitar-playing singer and writer of loopy,
infectiously funny songs, died on the morning of
October 29, 2007, in a motel in Kingman, Arizona.
She had informed the front desk clerk about 7:00
a.m. that she would be checking out that day.
When she had not done so by 11:00 a.m., a motel
staff member went to her room. Karen was found
in her bed, neatly dressed, with an empty tank of
helium gas nearby. She had committed suicide in a
gentle, painless way by breathing pure helium,
which rendered her unconscious within a minute or
two and dead within five or ten minutes. The
hotel immediately called 911, but the paramedics could do nothing to help her.
A native of the Northeast, she had chosen
Kingman, Arizona, as one of her temporary
sanctuaries in the last several years. Its dry
climate offered some relief from the severe
effects of the two baffling and exhausting
afflictions from which she had suffered for many
years: Morgellons Syndrome and Chronic Fatigue
and Immune Dysfunction Syndrome (CFIDS).
According to the CFIDS Association
(www.cfids.org), “Chronic fatigue and immune
dysfunction syndrome, also known as chronic
fatigue syndrome (CFS), myalgic encephalomyelitis
(ME) and by other names, is a complex and
debilitating chronic illness that affects the brain and multiple body systems.”
Morgellons Syndrome is equally baffling to
science. The Morgellons Research Foundation
(www.morgellons.org) found that although some
patients did find physicians willing to help
them, “many patients reported feeling abandoned
by physicians unwilling to investigate their
illness. These patients tried valiantly to find a
modicum of relief in the face of an otherwise
ineffective medical system.” Karen, who spent
years intensively researching her ailments, was one of those patients.
Numerous doctors could not alleviate the
increasingly tortured existence she had lived for
the past several years. As her conditions
worsened, and life became progressively more
unbearable, Karen consulted numerous experts on
the subject of suicide, and had received
extensive advice on how to find the strength to
live, as well as how to put an end to her pain
peacefully, should she choose to do so. She spent
an enormous amount of time conducting research on
how to achieve a rapid, painless death.
Ultimately, she chose the helium method because
it was recommended in the world’s best-selling
suicide how-to book, Final Exit, by Derek
Humphry, and because the supplies could all be
obtained locally, legally, and without having to involve anyone else.
Posted in Assisted Suicide, Books, Dead, Euthanasia, Final Exit, Hemlock, RTD News, RTD Organizations, Self-Deliverance, Suicide (rational), death, right to die
The article states she breathed pure helium, but is the helium in party kits pure helium?
Yes, it is as pure as you can get, and it is lethal in an enclosed space. — ERGO
http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=rbQhSEnZnTAC&dq=final+exit+derek&pg=PP1&ots=yNp4urvGdf&sig=3D31e7YouZG9zqtdepm3S93dO60&hl=en&prev=http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&cr=countryUK%7CcountryGB&sa=X&oi=spell&resnum=0&ct=result&cd=1&q=final+exit+derek&spell=1&oi=print&ct=title&cad=one-book-with-thumbnail#PPP1,M1
So, before I take the time to purchase the book over the internet can someone assure me that this isn’t the full deal, for free
I am new here. I am in the market for a helium tank and found a couple of places that sell them. One tank can blow up 30 balloons, the other 50. My concern is money. Would the tank that can inflate 30 balloons be enough for self deliverance? Anybody?
i’m new here. i had non hodgkins lymphoma. i have a sevre/profound hearing loss. i have sjogrens syndrome, ataxia , nueropathy and am loosing my vision. i reley on my sight so much in order to understand what people are saying. i’m also in so much pain. my doctors can’t seem to understand i don’t want any agressive treatment i only wish to be comfortable. i’m an artist so my vision loss is doubly frightening. there isn’t anything they can do to cure any of my disabilities. that’s basicly why i started looking for sites like this. has anyone had any dealing with compassion and choice? has anyone ever read the book ‘exit house’?
I too have suffered from severe-chronic CFS, had radiation treatment as a child which gave me hormonal problems that mainstream medicine failed to cure as well. Plus now I had an accident 3 months ago which has made my leg permanently crippled/ruptured 60% of the muscles and I’ve been told it and the agonising pain /disability it causes me despite the strongest pain killers are permanent. I so want to die peacefully as described above, it is beautiful to end such intense suffering.
But I am concerned to do it correctly and yes my mind does wonder if I will have unpleasant drowning sensations if I use the helium method or some such. Surely a hood is more unpleasant than breathing from a mask ?
Using a face mask with the helium method of self-deliverance from unbearble suffering will almost certainly be blown off the face as the gas turns on.
Six years’ ago, I bought a big helium tank from a party supplies store and got the medical mask, etc., on. I checked and my voice was squeaky. Hours later, I woke up with the mask still on and the helium all used up and a bad headache.
I do wish there was something painless, quick, sure and legal instead of this horrible social stigma that forces one to choose these complicated and hit-or-miss methods.
A face mask does not work in the helium method of self-deliverance. It works only with a plastic bag over the head, secured at the neck, with the pipe running in. Properly done, this method delivers brain death within 3-4 minutes.
In using this method, a person really will be rendered unconscious before feeling any pain?
The helium method is entirely painless.
I am wondering whether in the helium method instead of a plastic bag, it is possible to use a full face mask, like the ones used by scuba divers or fire fighters.
As I have said before, the face mask either does not fit, or blows off. Not recommended.
Perhaps a fireman’s mask would work, I don’t know, but how would the average person get hold of such a mask, anyway. Surgical masks both leak and blow off when the tank is turned on.
I don’t have any idea about fire fighters masks; anyway, how would an ordinary person get one?
How could ordinary people obtain a fireman’s full face mask? Whether it works or not has never been tested.
I’ve been having a hard time ascertaining whether or not there are consequences to killing yourself in a motel. Are your survivors charged any fines by the motel?
Also, I want to thank you for all your work.
No fines that we have ever heard off. But a generous tip to the surprised staff is tasteful.
The compression method using a ratchet tie-down is mentioned in Five Last Acts by Chris Docker. I would like to know more about it. Does anybody know where I can find more information?