Time, it seemed, had come.
Roy Nagahara said his final farewells to family and friends, then turned to his wife, Irene, as the medical staff removed the breathing tube from his throat.
Nagahara had gone to the hospital 12 days earlier with severe pneumonia, his heart and lungs so weak that doctors placed him on a resuscitator just to stabilize him enough to run tests.
Already compromised by a pair of strokes, Nagahara's condition continued to worsen. After five days on the resuscitator, Nagahara could bear no more. He wanted the tube removed, even though he knew it meant he would almost certainly die.
"So they pulled it out and I put my head down, closed my eyes and waited," Nagahara said of that April day. "After a couple of seconds, I looked around and said, 'Eh, I'm still alive.' So I put my head down again, closed my eyes and fell asleep.
"Ten minutes later I opened my eyes again and I was still alive. So I told the doc, 'I guess it's not my day.'"
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