The first right to die case to reach the United States Supreme Court. Nancy Cruzan was in her early twenties when a 1983 automobile accident deprived her of oxygen for perhaps 12 to 14 minutes (the best estimate), and left her in a persistent vegetative state. A gastrostomy feeding tube was surgically implanted about a month after the accident, and she was fed through the tube continuously after that. Unlike Karen Quinlan, Ms. Cruzan was not sustained by a mechanical respirator or other life-support machine.