Dax Cowart

Donald Herbert Cowart (December 16, 1947 – April 28, 2019), better known as Dax Cowart, was an attorney and a former United States Air Force pilot who served in the Vietnam War. He was born in Henderson, Texas.

Despite the debilitating effects of his injuries, Cowart graduated from Texas Tech University in 1986 with a law degree, and established his own legal practice as a personal injury attorney. He became notable for the ethical issues he raised over the medical community's efforts to save his life against his wishes. His case is often cited in discussions of medical ethics.

Accident On July 25, 1973, Cowart was a 25-year-old US Air Force Reserve pilot working with his father, a cattle rancher and real estate broker in Henderson, TX. The accident occurred as they returned to their car after inspecting a tract of land they were considering for purchase. A nearby underground pipeline was leaking propane gaswhich unlike natural gas is heavier than air and thus collects in low areas such as the creek bed near which they had parkedand as they started the car the propane exploded.

The surrounding trees and vegetation caught fire as Cowart was showered with glass from the windshield. He made his way out of the car and ran, breaking through three walls of fire, rolling on the ground after each one to extinguish his burning clothes. After a mile and a half he collapsed. He later wrote:

Cowart's father, who had been outside the car at the time of the explosion, was found barely alive near the edge of the fire.

After the accident, Cowart changed his first name to Dax to avoid confusion after he embarrassingly discovered that, on more than one occasion, he had mistakenly responded to the name Donald when another person was being addressed. The shorter name was also easier for him to write.

Cowart was a frequent teacher and speaker at the Trial Lawyers College in Dubois, Wyoming. The college was founded by Gerry Spence, and the courses provided are Continuing Legal Education (CLE) accredited by "the state in which the course is held."

Cowart spoke on patient rights in the US and abroad. His life and his reflections on what has happened to him challenged medicine's understanding of itself as a moral practice. A documentary of his plight titled Please Let Me Die was filmed in 1974, with a follow-up documentary titled Dax's Case filmed in 1984. Cowart's case illustrates several issues of patient autonomy.

Cowart died at the age of 71 on April 28, 2019, from complications of leukemia and liver cancer, in Fallbrook, California.