Remember when a patient could enter a hospital and come out a well being?

The only place safe for a body these days, it seems, is the morgue. People are no longer just “going postal” in the post office.  Those distinctive pops are going off in the movie theatres, the temples, and now, gasp, even in the hospitals?

Saturday, an Ohio man shot his wife of 45 years who was already in critical condition as she lay in a hospital’s intensive care unit.

Akron, Ohio police said 66-year-old John Wise entered 65-year-old Barbara Wise’s hospital room at Akron General Medical Center on Saturday and fired one near-deadly shot while standing at her bedside.  Though in grave condition, the poor thing then refused to die.  She was declared dead hours later on Sunday morning.

Barbara Wise’s autopsy report will likely bump off or, rather, bump up John Wise’s attempted aggravated murder charge to a more serious murder charge, police say.

The Wises lived together in a brick bungalow house with well-kept landscaping in Massillon, Ohio, about 25 miles south of Akron.  A neighbor who lives two houses away and only knew the couple in passing said they appeared to be in good health and were often seen beautifying their yard together.

“She looked fine out in the front yard,” Crystal Maxhimer said. “Physically, she looked fine.”

Maxhimer told an Associated Press reporter that given the 25-mile drive from Massillon to the hospital in Akron, John Wise must have been a man on a mission:  “He obviously was not going to go there and hurt anyone else,” she said.  “He obviously went up there to do it.”

Massillon Fire Chief Tom Burgasser said emergency personnel responded to the Wises’ residence on July 28 for a medical call.  Privacy rules prevented him from releasing additional information, but he said the department treated a patient for a medical condition that involved advanced life support including oxygen, a heart monitor, and IV.  Burgasser could not confirm if the patient was Barbara Wise, but said the patient was taken to Affinity Medical Center in Massillon.

John Wise enters hospital with flowers? Nope, a gun! WTH?!

John Wise has been cooperative and forthcoming in the investigation. Due to this twist, investigators are scrutinizing whether it was a mercy killing.  After all, Barbara Wise had been hospitalized for 8 long grueling years.  No?  8 difficult months?  No!  Only 8 whole days!

We can all empathize with a man’s grief.  But what was this Wise guy thinking?  The yard he’s headed for now will have everything—creeping slugs, Black-eyed Susans, conniving snakes, bitter weed.

Everything but grass.

You be the judge.  Was “the mercy” John Wise showed intended to end his own suffering or his wife’s?