Death Panel Warning is ‘Way Behind the Curve’

As reported at RFFM.org:

Hospice Care Horror Stories: Anecdotal Accounts Of How America’s Health Care System Often Hastens Death, According To the Fiscal Bottom Line

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Sarah Palin’s Warnings About Death Panels Way Behind The Curve

Some Health Care Providers Are Literal Purveyors of Death

My piece related the story of how the culture of death has permeated America’s health care system.  The death panels former Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin warned us about regarding what was included in President Barack Obama’s health care reform law have actually been in place and are entrenched in the delivery of health care services for the elderly and all Americans whose health care may now be dependent on solely economic issues.  I wrote about how some hospitals, nursing homes and hospice care providers now hasten death for those who may be a drain on the fiscal bottom line.

A personal story to illustrate the reality of the policy:

The following comment is from Christina Bowen and is included in my column “Hospice, Living Wills, Futile Care: Hospice, Hospitals & Nursing Homes Have License To Kill.”

I honestly believe with all my heart that if Hospice had not been in charge of my mother’s care, that she would still be alive today. My mom was 70 years old and had cancer. We are well aware that this is a terminal disease, yet she was no where near the end of her life.

My mom had bone cancer in both of her upper legs. She was in a wheel chair so it was hard for her to travel. She was also on bottled oxygen. After several months of consideration she decided not to take any more chemotherapy or radiation. The only thing she needed was something to control her pain, because the cancer was not going to go away. On September the first, I took her to see her oncologist for the last time. They decided together that Hospice could provide her with the care she needed from here on out. On that day my mom was of sound mind and doing well. We left the doctor’s office and went out to dinner together.

The next day the Hospice nurses came to the house for an evaluation. They took control over all of mom’s medications and instructed us not to call 911 in case of an emergency. Everything from here on out was to be determined by the Hospice physician. They immediately increased her fentynol patch from 50mcg to 100mcg. They increased her oral pain medicine from 30mg of oxycodone to 100-120mg oxycodone per day.

[snip]

On Sept. the 8th Hospice finally showed up at the house. Mom was in a coma and unable to take her medicines. They insisted that she was just in her final stages of life and the morphine had nothing to do with what we were seeing. They said she must continue to take her morphine, so they went to the pharmacy and ordered a liquid form to be administered. She died later that evening.

The entire article can be read here.

There is some very good advice contained in this article, “Some years before, she had, in writing through her lawyer, made me responsible for her care if she were ever unable to make her own decisions.”

Maybe it’s time to sit down with your family and your lawyer and discuss your desire to control your own medical care decisions. Make it clear that you want to live until the Lord takes you naturally, you expect your family members to take a firm stand in this regard and make it legally binding.

God have mercy on these misguided souls.

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