No one who is sent to a hospice facility, comes out alive. It is a death house.
I went through this with my husband last year. One doctor said send him to hospice. So, I went to the hospice facility and found a patient goes there to die and if the patient needs emergency help to keep him/her alive, it doesn’t happen - the patient dies.
There was a “funeral home room” for funeral homes to come to talk to the family.
My husband was not going to this “death house”. Later, as I talked to doctors they told me that is what happens at hospice - the patient dies. Then, when he was in another hospital under the care of our family physican, I told him, “no hospice”. He said he would not do that to him. I found, with doctors who care about you, they would not use hospice for their family members.
Yes, my husband died, but he lived much longer than he would have if I had sent him to hospice and he got everything possible until he died so I know I did everything humanly possible to keep him alive. I did not abandon him to die in a hospice death house.
Hospice is a death house - that is what it was designed for - to die with no special act to save the person’s life. Give drugs until the patient dies and don’t do anything to keep the patient alive.
If anyone wants to contradict what I have written here, don’t bother. Just go into a hospice death house and die, but stop by their funeral home room to plan a funeral.
One final word - so Medicare doesn’t have to pay more money to keep you alive, hospice came into being, paid by Medicare, so you could die faster and Medicare wouldn’t have to pay more money to keep you alive. It’s one step away from Solient Green. I saved my husband from that kind of death.
I’m pinging you to read what I wrote here.
Just so you know, my experience was so very different than yours. Please see my post above.
Hospice is used when all else fails, and “modern medicine” can’t stop the unrelenting devastation caused by some illnesses, and can’t relieve the pain and destruction caused by the same.
Please know that no-one from any funeral home came to talk with me. My husband and I decided on our own, to donate his brain to Harvard for research into these brain destructive illnesses, and his body to a local medical school for students to study.
No-one made a profit, and my beloved husband now is no longer suffering from a horrible disease that made the last decade of his life completely miserable.
Please do not generalize from your personal experience and opinion to all of us. You do not understand that some of us are dealing with intractable illnesses that modern medicine cannot alleviate or cure.
I’ve had no personal experience with hospice but I think you’re being a little hard on them.
I have friends who thought they were wonderful.
As I understand it, hospice is used when a patient is deemed terminal and no further treatment is advised or could help.
Prolonging a life in pain when there is no hope or viable treatment is only kind if you think it is.
I will take your advise over anyone else on this. I will not only not go to a hospice facility. If the suggestion is even brought up, my wife will have me moved to a different hospital.
God bless you, Marcella.
“Yes, my husband died, but he lived much longer than he would have if I had sent him to hospice and he got everything possible until he died so I know I did everything humanly possible to keep him alive. I did not abandon him to die in a hospice death house.”
Interestingly, when facing their own deaths, many doctors themselves do not believe in doing “everything possible” to stay alive:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203918304577243321242833962.html
Good article, worth reading...
God Bless you...I know what it’s like to take care of someone at home, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.
You are so right; that is what they were designed for=death.
Even when hospice comes to your home,it’s to hasten things along and save money.
Hope you are well, and thank you for sharing.Your husband was blessed to have you....
Mrs CT Hillbilly
**I found, with doctors who care about you, they would not use hospice for their family members.**
Thanks, Marcella, for sharing part of your story.
Marcella, what you say is true - a hospice is a place for terminally ill patients to go to prepare for death. That is what they are. They are not treatment centers. If anyone claims they are, they are lying.
Some people choose them over suffering - others find it beyond consideration for themselves or thier loved ones.
I’m glad you found an option that was good for you and your husband.
How I wish more families would keep their loved ones at home for their final days. But some just aren’t up to it.
Hospice should offer the option of home care. The ones I’m familiar with do.
However, there’s no reason to make these accusations, anymore than to say that all of the people on ventilators can’t breathe!
The definition of hospice care is that death is expected with in 6 months due to a serious illness.
Hospice in patient facilities are used for the last few days - they don’t cause death. The people who are admitted are only those in the last stages of an illness that’s killing them.
And yes, I’ve had patients “kicked off hospice Medicare because the excellent care the hospice nurses gave my patients better health. Two that I remember died in the hospital within a month of losing hospice nurse care. (And before we could fight the Medicare bureaucracy. ) One had unstable angina, severe pain and shortness of breath that her family couldn’t bear. Another lived alone, had no family, and had extreme COPD with frequent attacks. The hospice nurses made home visits, attended to their needs when they got worse.
May your dear Husband rest in peace—the undying loyalty of such a mate for life is truly inspiring.
I just watched my Mother-in-law die under hospice care a couple of months ago. It did make me feel uncomfortable to see her drugged up to the point where she couldn’t communicate with her family. Of course, being drugged up is the name of control of more than half of the patients in a nursing home. I honestly think my Mother-in-law was thoroughly addicted to pain medications—fentanyl, then other opiates. Yes, they die in a stuperous, pain-free state, but is it right?