© 2024 WFSU Public Media
WFSU News · Tallahassee · Panama City · Thomasville
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

The Ventilator: Life, Death And The Choices We Make At The End

Stephanie Rinka in her beach wheelchair at Fort Fisher State Recreation Area, North Carolina.
Courtesy of John Rinka
Stephanie Rinka in her beach wheelchair at Fort Fisher State Recreation Area, North Carolina.

For much of their lives together, Stephanie Rinka and her husband, John, had ongoing conversations about end-of-life issues. Stephanie was a nurse, and she cared for many people suffering from incurable illnesses and debilitating traumas.

Stephanie treated her patients with great care and dignity. Privately, though, she told John she wouldn't want to be kept alive if her quality of life was gone. For Stephanie, quality of life was defined by action. She was always on the move. She liked to snorkel and hike and wander beaches. She was restless and energetic. The idea of being inside a body that didn't function terrified her.

John and Stephanie Rinka on their wedding day, April, 1971.
/ Courtesy of John Rinka
/
Courtesy of John Rinka
John and Stephanie Rinka on their wedding day, April, 1971.

"She would say, 'John just shoot me, don't ever let me get to that point.' I heard that, I don't know how many times," John says.

One of her sons, Jason Rinka heard it too, even when he was just a kid.

"Whenever we'd discussed somebody she'd seen in the emergency room or seen in the hospital I just distinctly remember her telling me, 'I don't want to be like that, I don't ever want to end up like that.'"

This is the story of the Rinka family and what happened when tragedy befell them. It's a story that explores how the choices we prefer when we're healthy may no longer make sense to us when we're actually confronting death.

Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Shankar Vedantam is the host and creator of Hidden Brain. The Hidden Brain podcast receives more than three million downloads per week. The Hidden Brain radio show is distributed by NPR and featured on nearly 400 public radio stations around the United States.
Jennifer Schmidt is a senior producer for Hidden Brain. She is responsible for crafting the complex stories that are told on the show. She researches, writes, gathers field tape, and develops story structures. Some highlights of her work on Hidden Brain include episodes about the causes of the #MeToo movement, how diversity drives creativity, and the complex psychology of addiction.
Parth Shah is a producer and reporter in the Programming department at NPR. He came to NPR in 2016 as a Kroc Fellow.
Tara Boyle is the supervising producer of NPR's Hidden Brain. In this role, Boyle oversees the production of both the Hidden Brain radio show and podcast, providing editorial guidance and support to host Shankar Vedantam and the shows' producers. Boyle also coordinates Shankar's Hidden Brain segments on Morning Edition and other NPR shows, and oversees collaborations with partners both internal and external to NPR. Previously, Boyle spent a decade at WAMU, the NPR station in Washington, D.C. She has reported for The Boston Globe, and began her career in public radio at WBUR in Boston.
Thomas Lu is an assistant producer for Hidden Brain.He came to NPR in 2017 as an intern for the TED Radio Hour. He has worked with How I Built This, All Things Considered, Weekend Edition and Pop Culture Happy Hour. Before coming to NPR, he was a production intern for StoryCorps.