Posted on 10/14/2009 5:55:03 AM PDT by markomalley
At around 4am on Monday, a friend of mine was woken by a call from the private care home in south-west London where her 98-year-old grandmother is resident.
"Mrs ------- has breathing difficulties," the night manager told her. "She needs oxygen. Shall we call an ambulance?"
"What do you mean?" my friend responded. "What's the matter with her?"
"She needs to go to hospital. Do you want that? Or would you prefer that we make her comfortable?"
Befuddled by sleep, she didn't immediately grasp what was being asked of her. Her grandmother is immobilised by a calcified knee joint, which is why she is in the home. She's a little deaf and frail, but otherwise perky. She reads a newspaper every day (without glasses), and is a fan of the darling of daytime television, David Dickinson. Why wouldn't she get medical treatment if she needed it?
Then, the chilling implication of the phone call filtered through – she was being asked whether her grandmother should be allowed to die.
"Call an ambulance now," my friend demanded.
The person at the other end persisted. "Are you sure that's what you want? For her to go to hospital."
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
ObamaCare is on the way. Seniors should be alert.
Seniors going postal is on the way. Obama should be alert.
If you train doctors and staff to kill old people, and train them that it is all right to kill old people, they will kill old people. The original and true Hippocratic oath forbids abortion and euthanasia. Medical schools today have a modified “Hippocratic oath” that leave out the relevant sentences on abortion and euthanasia.
Doctors murdered in Germany under the National Socialists (Nazis). Soviet psychologists imprisoned under Soviet communism. I don't know if Soviet doctors murdered. The massive abuse of trusted professions occurs when government, rather than individual consumers control the professions.
MDs, have been killing the un-born for 30 years, so I would guess, any other humans deemed worthless, are next
Freepmail wagglebee or DirtyHarryY2K to subscribe or unsubscribe from the moral absolutes ping list.
FreeRepublic moral absolutes keyword search
Studies: Some nursing home elderly get futile care
By ALICIA CHANG, AP Science Writer Alicia Chang, Ap Science Writer Wed Oct 14, 7:07 pm ET
LOS ANGELES – A surprising number of frail, elderly Americans in nursing homes are suffering from futile care at the end of their lives, two new federally funded studies reveal.
One found that putting nursing home residents with failing kidneys on dialysis didn’t improve their quality of life and may even push them into further decline. The other showed many with advanced dementia will die within six months and perhaps should have hospice care instead of aggressive treatment.
Medical experts say the new research emphasizes the need for doctors, caregivers and families to consider making the feeble elderly who are near death comfortable rather than treating them as if a cure were possible — more like the palliative care given to terminally ill cancer patients.
“We probably need to be offering a palliative care option to many more patients to make the last days of their lives as comfortable as possible,” said Dr. Mark Zeidel of the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, who was not involved in the studies............
We will see more articles like this which are designed to pave the way for OBAMA DEATH PANELS.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091014/ap_on_he_me/us_med_elderly_futile_care
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.