Are you saying he is an "instigator" too?Didn’t realize it at the time, but my father was killed by morphine. The whole family gathered around his bedside for a 24 hr vigil while he was dying. They kept him on morphine to “ease his pain.” He slept peacefully around the clock until he was gone. My older sister died recently. I visited her in the hospital just a couple days before she died. She didn’t feel well but was talking and joking with us. Was surprised to learn the next day they sent her home to die. I went to her home and the family was gathered around her bedside as she slept, on morphine to “ease her pain” right up to her last breath. My brother’s father-in-law who was healthy and worked every day of his life even though he’d been retired for thirty years and was up on a ladder pruning a tree when he started having problems catching his breath. I mean when you’re over ninety years old you might sometimes have trouble catching your breath when you’re working hard. They took him to the hospital and they put him on morphine to “ease the pain” and he was dead within 24 hours. I visited him too with the family gathered around waiting for him to take his last breath. I’ve seen it happen enough times to realize this is not right. When I was in the hospital after they amputated my leg they put me on morphine. I was drugged up and basically out of it. They kept me in bed 24/7 wouldn’t even let me get up to go to the bathroom. They had some kind of device hooked up to me where if I ever felt pain all I had to do was push a button to inject a dose of morphine directly into my IV. Good thing I finally realized what was happening and had them disconnect it. Was up a couple days later, in therapy, then got the heck out of there. Was never so glad to get home in my entire young life.
I’m sure you changed Mariner’s mind.
I’m not durprised at the anger of many on this thread, I’m surprised that you pinged Jim instead of simply talking to Mariner, calling for an apology.
Life and death experiences naturally are highly emotional. However, as your own hospice concept illustrates, end of life care and hospice are not all the same.
Not all use of opiates are the same, nor is the doctrine of unintended consequences illicit. We shouldn’t sedate the patient any more than he wishes, and we should monitor his comfort rather than treat our own distress by giving him meds. we must acknowledge that different people have different levels of tolerance for pain. The patient’s caregivers, family, doctor and nurses need to all be involved and monitor the patient.
Unlike Mariner, I assumed that the wife made sure her husband was comfortable -her dispute was with the concept of hospice facilities, not with pain control. I would have discussed this with him rather than getting him banned/suspended.