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homeagain wrote: READ THIS CLOSELY.....
nypost.com/2012/12/09/diary-of-an-intensive-care-nurse/
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Had "Helen" signed a DNR herself before she had the stroke her family would not be in a position to decide whether or not to sign one for her, right? And the misnamed "Death With Dignity" bill that was recently killed would not have done a single thing to alter the woman's plight because, being not lucid, she would have been unable to express, on two separate occasions, her desire to kill herself, right?I cared for a woman in her 90s whose family had considered making her a DNR but decided against it. After a relatively minor stroke that left her awake but not lucid,[/i]
Same comment - had the woman taken care of having her wishes spelled out in a legally binding document, her husband would have been able to take her home to die of the infection that day. Not the fault of the doctor, the husband, the hospital or the society that she didn't do that, it's her fault. And, here again, nothing in the misnamed "Death With Dignity" bill that was recently killed would not have done a single thing to alter the woman's plight because, being not lucid, she would have been unable to express, on two separate occasions, her desire to kill herself, right? I mean, there is a reason that the doctor was talking to her husband and not to her, right?Consider another example, of a patient with advanced cancer, in this case an elderly woman with a well-informed husband who knew his wife was dying and that she didn’t want to end her life with an extended ICU stay.
And here, again, we see that the article is about those who are utterly incapable of requesting on 2 separate occasions that a physician perform an act of homicide for their benefit, which means that the entire article is utterly irrelevant to the discussion about mislabeled "Death With Dignity" or "Right To Die" legislation.If the patients I’m describing could talk, though, I think the urinary catheter would be the least of their complaints. In addition to the invasion of tubes, ICU patients live in a world of bright lights and loud alarms, continuous stimulation. People pry open their eyes and shine flashlights into them, then pry open their mouths.
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PrintSmith wrote: You are not quite on target with regards to my view of suicide onpoint; certainly on the paper, but not actually inside the rings.
Suicide is an act of fear. One chooses that action because they are afraid of their future, it is something they lack the ability to face. That is simply the truth, in all instances, of suicide. There is simply no dignity in giving in to your fear.
I, too, have been "left behind" by someone who committed suicide. I have lost one who was like a brother to me who had diabetes and failed to wake from his slumber one morning. My father died as he entered this world, completely helpless, unable to care for himself, unable to speak and in great pain from the cancer that riddled his body. I lost my godfather to a brain tumor when I was a young man and my godmother, his wife, to cancer over 30 years later, both of whom left this world in the same state as my father did. My paternal grandmother lived to the ripe old age of 100, dementia having robbed her of most of her memory of those that loved her. One of my cousin's children tried to commit suicide by driving a vehicle off a cliff when he was young and survived only to become brain damaged many years later when an illness resulted in clots in his heart that choked off oxygen to his brain. My former business partner has a special needs son that was delivered via emergency C-section after the umbilical wrapped around his throat and choked off the supply of oxygen to his brain.
Everyone in this State has a "right to die" at any point of their choosing without the need to involve others in an act of homicide to effect their death. They can pick the day, pick the manner, say good-bye, do all the things you mention in your post at the present time without the legislation proposed becoming law. Having a physician prescribe a fatal dose of barbiturates for you brings no dignity to your demise. Whether you pass with dignity or in its absence is the result of how you lived your life, not whether you had access to a fatal dose of barbiturates to effect your death. To be kind, it is obscene to suggest otherwise with the insertion of the language used in the bill that was recently defeated in the Colorado General Assembly.
And for the record, I make no judgement of a person who chooses to take their own life, that is well above my pay grade as there is only One who knows the true heart of the person who made that decision; I simply, and correctly, note that the act is the result of fear of the future, a future that the person committing the act finds themselves unable, for whatever reason, to face.
At the end, my father was in great pain. He was no more capable of caring for himself than a newborn baby was and required as much, if not more, care than a newborn child does. He was unable to speak, unable to walk, unable to control his bowels. And I dare any of you to try and tell me that he lost his dignity on his journey from a man who took care of himself and his family to his final breath, that the manner in which he died deprived him of his human dignity, or deprived any of us who cared for him on that journey of ours. To even imply that such is the case, as was done with the language in the bill that was recently, and properly, defeated in the Colorado legislature is abhorrent to any person of reason.
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homeagain wrote: "The problem of inappropriate use or OVERuse of medical procedures is a difficult nut to crack. For one,physicians,hospitals and the life science industry are all aligned and INCENTIVIZED to do MORE procedures." Even at the subconscious level, as graphically portrayed in ATUL GAWANDES 2009 New Yorker article, "The Cost Conundrum".....certainly not all procedures are carried out in the patients best interest." EXCERPT from book by Eric Topol, M.D.
ATUL GAWANDE authored several books,all from a surgeon's viewpoint of the challenges he faces in
the medical arena....IF you wish I can also cite you date,volume of articles from the WSJ regarding the
medicare crisis, the role UNNECESSARY procedures play in the fubar we have as a health care delivery
system.....YOU may think this is personal,but I ASSURE you it effects EVERYONE ONE OF US in one way or another...we ALL are paying for this issue....information is POWER.
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