Obama’s Pain Pills

Flopping Aces ^ | 10-1-09 | Steven T. Sampson

[Starman417]

On June 24, 2009, President Obama made the following statement on an ABC Obama Infomercial, “Maybe you’re better off not having the surgery, but just taking the pain killer.” This is the wise counsel of a man who has never known life and death on an intimate level. This comes from a man who has led a sheltered existence and never considered serving his country other than a partial term in the senate and a few months in the White House. Are you prepared to have this spoiled untested man make life and death considerations for your loved ones.

Life and death decisions are to be treated as some of the most important decisions in your lifetime. They will affect the quality of life for all those involved for the rest of their days. I have made those decisions and I live with their consequences day by day.

It was a hot sultry day in the summer of ’67, I was a nineteen year old Marine squad leader with the lead squad of a platoon sweep through a jungle valley of Indochina. I assigned my best man to take the point, we were moving slowly and expecting trouble.

We had been through several firefights and were confident in our ability to meet our enemy and destroy him while sustaining only minor casualties. Our luck was about to change.

Suddenly, all hell broke loose; we were caught in a cross fire and were trying to return fire to two different directions while the leaves and grass around us were being cut and falling in green pieces from the deadly enfilading fire. My point man was working his way back to our position, while the rest of the platoon was moving up to support our position. With a violent jerk, our point man was hit and thrown backwards. The lead elements of the company reached our position and prepared to sweep forward. I ran forward to aid my point man.

Unfortunately, his face had received catastrophic injuries, there was nothing left of his facial features. The brain was visible from where his forehead had been. His left hand was gone and he had a major wound to the lower abdomen. I sat on my knees next to him and whimpered, because I was without a clue as to what I could do to help him.

In his struggles, he grabbed my left arm with his right hand and held on tight. He couldn’t scream out in agony, his mouth was gone. I couldn’t look into his eyes because they were gone. All he could do was to hold on to my arm. He could hear, but I was too stunned and scared to talk to him. My squad and the rest of the platoon passed me and became engaged in a bigger firefight up ahead.

My platoon leader rushed by me, I cried out, “What do I do?”

[Constitutions Grandchild]

Man, that's a tough article to read. Lots of deep breaths before the final paragraph. I can't speak to President Obama’s thoughts on this matter, as he hasn't made his thoughts perfectly clear (or at least those he's put forward bear little resemblance to what is coming out of Congress), but I hope the President is referring to the tertiary care the point man would have received had he not bled out and relieved all from making that decision.

There comes point after you have watched your loved ones undergo every possible treatment, endure every possible procedure, suffer the pain, side effects, complications requiring more tests, more surgeries, more EVERYthing. The quality of their last months is horrendous (as that young point man's life would have been) and in the end they (and you) lose the battle and die. They've had invasive surgery, brutal reactions to chemo, medicines, pain killers, and half the time were semi-conscious due to drug-induced euphoria. When you are left there, all alone, having lost the one you love, you say, “Was it really worth it?” Would it have been better to let God and nature take it's course and we could have had a couple of weeks of the best times ever, or did I do the right thing.

Their bodies lie before you, lifeless, scarred and in your pain you ask was it worth it, or you see them flatlined on a ventilator, no brain activity and they breathe and breathe, their heart is pumping with a machine and that's that. Sure there should be Medical POAs and Directives, but what about the elderly who don't have it or the indigent elderly who don't have it. I'm hoping all they're asking is to think about it and make some plans.

Unfortunately when you open the door, the government knows no bounds. The next guy in office may decide to apply the law for more sinister reasons. That's the danger.

[supercat]

If someone would rather have $5,000 cash and a pain pill than have a surgery that costs $7,500, does it make sense for such a person to have the surgery? Is it there any moral reason why that person should receive the surgery if there is someone else who would rather spend $7,000 on the surgery than endure without it?

Obama's line about people maybe being better off with a painkiller was a fine one as far as it goes, except that the decision of whether someone would be "better off" with the painkiller is most likely not going to have anything to do with whether the person would be willing to pay for the surgery.