Editing Karen Ann Quinlan (section)

==Early life, collapse, and coma==
Quinlan was born on March 29, 1954, in [[Scranton, Pennsylvania]], to a young woman of [[Irish Americans|Irish American]] ancestry. A few weeks later, she was adopted by Joseph and Julia Quinlan, devout [[Catholic Church|Roman Catholics]] who lived in the [[Landing, New Jersey|Landing section]] of [[Roxbury, New Jersey|Roxbury Township, New Jersey]]. Julia and Joseph also had daughter Mary Ellen in 1956 and son John in 1957.<ref name="KarenAnn">Quinlan, J. and Quinlan, J. D. (1977). ''Karen Ann: The Quinlans Tell Their Story''. New York: Bantam Books. {{ISBN|0-385-12666-2}}</ref> Quinlan attended [[Morris Catholic High School]] in [[Denville Township, New Jersey|Denville, New Jersey]]. After graduation, she worked at the Mykroy Ceramics Corporation in [[Ledgewood, New Jersey]], from 1972 to 1974, and held several other jobs over the next year. Quinlan was a singer, and her parents characterized her as a tomboy.<ref name="Nessman">{{cite news |last=Nessman |first=Ravi |date=April 7, 1996 |title=Karen Ann Quinlan's Parents Reflect on Painful Decision 20 Years Later |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1996-04-07-mn-55744-story.html|newspaper=Los Angeles Times |access-date=August 30, 2015|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150315062427/http://articles.latimes.com/1996-04-07/news/mn-55744_1_karen-ann-quinlan|archive-date=March 15, 2015}}</ref> In April 1975, shortly after she turned 21, Quinlan left her parents' home and moved with two roommates into a house a few miles away in [[Byram Township, New Jersey]]. Around the same time, she went on a radical diet, reportedly to fit into a dress that she had bought.

On April 15, 1975, a few days after moving into her new house, Quinlan attended a friend's birthday party at a local bar (then known as Falconer's Lackawanna Inn) on [[Lake Lackawanna]] in Byram. She had eaten almost nothing for two days. At the party, she reportedly drank several [[Gin and tonic|gin and tonics]] and took [[Valium]]. Shortly afterwards, she felt faint and was quickly taken home and put to bed. When friends checked on her about 15 minutes later, they found that she was not breathing. An ambulance was called and [[rescue breathing|mouth-to-mouth resuscitation]] was attempted. Eventually some color returned to her pallid skin, but she did not regain consciousness. Quinlan was admitted in a coma to Newton Memorial Hospital in [[Newton, New Jersey]]. She remained there for nine days in an unresponsive condition before being transferred to [[Saint Clare's Hospital at Boonton Township|Saint Clare's Hospital]], a larger facility in Denville. Quinlan weighed {{Convert|115|lb|kg}} when admitted to the hospital.

Quinlan had suffered irreversible [[brain damage]] after experiencing an extended period of [[respiratory failure]] (lasting no more than 15–20 minutes). No precise cause of her respiratory failure has been given. Her brain was damaged to the extent that she entered a [[persistent vegetative state]]. Her eyes were "disconjugate" (i.e., they no longer moved in the same direction together). Her [[EEG]] showed only abnormal slow-wave activity. Over the next few months, she remained in the hospital as her condition gradually deteriorated. She lost weight, eventually weighing less than {{convert|80|lb|kg}}. She was prone to unpredictable, violent thrashing of her limbs. She was given [[nasogastric intubation|nasogastric feeding]] and a [[ventilator]] to help her breathe.