Daughter Asks Doctor to Turn Off Dad’s Life Support, 'I Knew It!' Dad Wakes Up Smiling – Story of the Day

"It's what he would have wanted," a young girl says, requesting the doctor to shut off her dad's life support in the hospital. Suddenly, her dad's eyes twitch open, and he wakes up. "I knew it!" he smiles and sits up on the bed.

The steady beeping of the medical monitors filled the sterile hospital room.

21-year-old Amelia stood by the bedside, staring at her father, Steve, who was surrounded by several medical devices.

"Are you absolutely sure about this, Amelia?" the doctor broke the silence. "Once we start, there's no turning back."

Amelia exhaled a long, weary breath before asking the doctor to turn off her dad's life support. "I...I have to do it, Doctor Craig. He wouldn't want to live like this. It's what he would have wanted."

"Alright," Doctor Craig nodded reluctantly.

Just then, they heard a voice from the hospital bed.

"I knew it!" Steve twitched his eyes open and smiled at Amelia.

"Dad! Y-You're awake?!" Amelia gasped.

Steve's senses began to emerge from the dark depths of his consciousness. A stabbing pain shot through his head as he sat up, but he couldn't remember anything.

"Steve, can you hear me? Steve?" Doctor Craig waved his hand.

The sterile, antiseptic smell reminded Steve he was in a hospital ward. The constant beeping machines filled his ears, annoying him.

"H-How did I end up here?" he asked. "What happened?"

"Dad...it's okay. Just relax. Calm down."

"I knew you would come, sweetie. I could hear your voice in the back of my head…even though I was unconscious. You're the only one who understands me. But what happened to me? What am I doing here? And wh-where's your Mom? And Chloe?"

"Steve, please don't strain yourself. You must rest. It's a miracle you survived!" Doctor Craig chimed in.

"No! I need to know what happened to me. Amelia, why aren't you saying anything?"

Desperation and an untold fear gripped Steve's heart. He held his aching head, trying to recall everything. Disoriented images of him holding a car key in his hand and getting into the car fully drunk were all he could remember.

Nothing more.

"Can someone please tell me what's going on? What happened to me? Amelia, where's Mom...and your sister? Why aren't they here?"

Amelia swallowed hard. "They're dead!" she said, as Steve's eyes bulged in shock.

"And you're responsible, Dad. You killed them. You killed Mom and my sister. You did it."

Steve's shoulders began to shake. "Wha-what do you mean I killed them? What happened to them?"

"Amelia, wait, let me handle this. He mustn't get too stressed," Doctor Craig said, sidling past Amelia. He stood near a confused Steve and gently pressed his shoulder.

"What's happening, doctor? I don't understand. Where's my wife and daughter? What is Amelia saying?"

"Well, some time ago, you went out drinking, Steve," Doctor Craig began. "...And then you took your car from the pub's parking lot and decided to drive. You were drunk beyond your senses. And...you got into an accident…

"…Your wife and younger daughter rushed to meet you in their car. Unfortunately, they got into an accident on the way and…I'm so sorry, Steve. Stay strong."

Steve held his head as he tried to piece together everything he just heard.

"When did this happen?"

Doctor Craig sighed as he scanned the report. "This was a long time ago. Let me check...this happened way back in 2014, Steve."

"Way back?" Steve raised a brow, still holding his aching head. "What do you mean by 'way back'?"

"We're in 2021 now, Steve. You got into that accident seven years ago."

"Seven years ago?"

"Yes, Steve," Doctor Craig said, showing Steve that day's newspaper dated July 2021.

"I can't believe this," Steve said, tears welling up in his eyes as he grabbed the newspaper and saw the date. "It can't be. Seven years? I was in a coma for seven years? In this hospital?"

Amelia and Doctor Craig nodded.

Before Steve was hospitalized…

"Steve? What the hell?" Samantha yelled. "Not again!"

Once again, Steve had returned home from the bar after partying with his friends on a weekday. He was so wasted that he didn't even notice the look of anxiety and shock in his wife's eyes.

"Leave me alone!" he said, slamming the door behind him as he entered the house.

"When will you stop drinking and driving, Steve? You promised me you wouldn't do this again. Think about your daughters!"

"I'm okay. I can stand on my feet...see...I'm so steady!"

"You need to stop drinking on weekdays, Steve!" Samantha shouted. "This is getting out of control. It's affecting your work… It's affecting us…"

"Calm down, babe," Steve said. "I'm going to bed."

Amelia had been standing there, watching her father barely maintain his balance as he walked toward his bedroom.

"Mom, now what?" Amelia rolled her eyes and shook her head.

"Is he not gonna stop drinking? I hate seeing Dad like this. I hope he doesn't make a scene at my wedding."

"Sweetie, go to bed. I'll put an end to this soon. Don't worry."

A few days later, Steve complained of a sharp pain in his chest and collapsed on the couch. Worried, Samantha quickly dialed 911, and they soon reached the hospital.

"What is it, Doctor Craig? Is everything alright?" Samantha asked after Steve opened his eyes in the hospital room.

"We're still waiting for the test reports to come from the lab," Doctor Craig said. "But based on your heart check-up report, I'm concerned, Steve. Have you been drinking a lot lately?"

"Yes, he's been drinking a lot," Samantha told Doctor Craig. "He doesn't listen to me. I told him it's going to affect his health."

That day, Doctor Craig strictly advised Steve to cut back on drinking and sent him home. Two days later, he called Samantha to tell her about the test results.

"It's nothing serious, just heartburn," he said. "However, I would still advise your husband to quit drinking. It's not good for his health."

"Okay!" Samantha sighed with relief. "I'll let him know. Thanks for calling!"

Instead of telling her husband the truth, Samantha told him that the test results showed his heart wasn't working well and that he had only two months to live.

Terrified, Steve immediately decided to change his lifestyle. He vowed not to drink again and began taking a walk every morning.

As days passed, Steve started feeling better because of the lifestyle change. One day, while looking for his lost earphones in the drawers, he stumbled across a lab report.

It was the same report that Doctor Craig had given to Samantha when she visited him after the phone call.

Steve was shocked when he opened the envelope and looked at the report. It said his heart was working fine. It wasn't anything like what Samantha had told him.

Did she lie to me? He wondered, feeling his cheeks burn with anger.

"Samantha? Where are you?" he yelled as he stormed out of his room with the report in his hand.

"What happened, babe?" she asked.

"What's this?" he asked, showing her the report. "Why did you lie to me? Why did you do this to me, Samantha?"

Terror surged into Samantha like a flood. "Steve...honey...I...I can explain...I'm sorry I...."

"Explain what, Samantha? You lied to me. You told me I would die. You played with my feelings!" Steve threw the report on the floor and turned towards the front door.

"Honey...wait...Steve, come back. I did this for you...for us. Please."

But Steve had already left the house.

Samantha burst into tears as she heard his car leave. At that point, she knew Steve would go to only one place—his favorite bar.

That night, Steve drank until the bartender refused to serve him more. Feeling angry, he slammed the change on the counter and wobbled out of the bar. It took him a few minutes to recognize his car in the parking lot.

Steve settled into the driver's seat and started the engine. That was the last coherent memory he could piece together from that night. He had no clue what had gone wrong after he started driving.

Present day…

"I… I shouldn't have drunk so much that night." Steve wailed. "It destroyed my family. I should've listened to Samantha. I killed my wife and daughter due to my stubbornness and stupidity."

"It's over, Dad. Everything's over," Amelia said. "There's no point in crying now. Sometimes, life never gives us another chance, and we have to make amends while we still can."

"God, I wish I had that second chance, Amy. I would never touch that home-wrecking alcohol again. I would spend all my time with my family and do everything I could to make you all happy. I would change... and never go back to that dark hell of addiction again."

"Are you sure you mean what you said, Dad?" Amelia asked.

"Yes! I do! I mean it!" Steve sobbed, only to be startled by a familiar voice.

"Daddy!" Chloe burst into the ward and hugged a shocked Steve. He was jolted, and his heart almost skipped a beat.

"Chloe?? You're...you're alive?"

"Then what did you think, Steve?"

"S-Samantha?!"

Steve's eyes bulged in shock when he looked up and saw Samantha standing there.

"Samantha!" Steve jumped from his bed and threw himself into her arms. "You're alive? Wha-what's going on? Amelia just said you guys were in a car crash...and died seven years ago."

Samantha exchanged a shy glance with Amelia before confessing something.

"You made me do this, Steve. Last night, you were drunk out of your mind when you pulled over outside our house. As soon as I saw you, I decided that this has to end," Samantha began.

"So, with Amelia's help, I put you in the driver's seat and brought you here...to the hospital."

"And Doctor Craig agreed to pretend that you woke up after seven years," Amelia added. "He did it because he understood how severe your drinking problem was."

"What? Really?" Steve was shocked.

"I saw your fingers twitching, Dad…I knew you were almost awake and could hear me. So I realized it was the perfect time to tell the doctor to turn off your 'life support' to make the coma part of our plan more believable...so you'd wake up thinking you were in a coma! Actually, you were never on life support because you weren't in a coma!"

"What?! No...no way…Oh my God! " Steve gasped in shock.

"It's still 2014, Steve!" Samantha said. "And the newspaper you saw was fake. We didn't get into an accident. Everyone's fine."

"You guys… You almost gave me a heart attack! And what about Amelia's wedding?"

"The wedding's next week, Dad," Amelia smiled. "I wanted you to walk me down the aisle as a changed man… as our father who used to laugh with us, not the man who always reeked of alcohol."

Steve broke down and hugged his family. He was discharged from the hospital later that day, ready to start a new chapter of his life.

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This work is inspired by real events and people, but it has been fictionalized for creative purposes. Names, characters, and details have been changed to protect privacy and enhance the narrative. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental and not intended by the author.

The author and publisher make no claims to the accuracy of events or the portrayal of characters and are not liable for any misinterpretation. This story is provided "as is," and any opinions expressed are those of the characters and do not reflect the views of the author or publisher.