A good friend's father was hospitalized a few years ago with a heart attack and hooked up to machines. The attending doctor didn't think the old man would make it.
My friend, respecting Dad's wishes to not be on machines, signed a paper approving the de-machining and putting the Dad on "comfort care" which (IN GENERAL) is basically no curative care.
That was ok - that was the Dad's wishes.
The old man pulled through, but the hospital refused to put Dad back on fluids or nutrition because - you guessed it - "comfort care" IN THAT HOSPITAL and for THAT DOCTOR is effectively Terri Schaivo-style starvation and dehydration.
They said, food and water was a medical treatment and thus "curative" and AGAINST the rules of "comfort care."
My friend was stunned. And the attending and her team wouldn't budge - ”you signed the document giving consent.”
For the next few days, my friend and siblings heard from scores of nurses etc that withholding fluids was effectively "the right thing to do"....very Terri Schaivo-like. They also threw in “Dad live a good long life” and “he will never come back the way he was.”
It took a virtual miracle whereby a different doctor intervened, said the father clearly wasn't terminal, and put the old man back on nutrition and fluids.
While my friend's Dad passed away peacefully in his sleep a few weeks later, it was on the Dad’s terms.
It’s also worth noting that the siblings were split on “comfort care.” There WAS a view that it was ok for Dad to dehydrate to death. Someone even said that dehydration is painless; I hear the total opposite during the Schaivo murder.
Euthanasia is, technically, illegal. And I know many people would be OK if fluids were withheld when it is THEIR time to go. Fair enough.
What’s happening in Oregon is worth monitoring. But euthanasia can be made legal if you're not careful with the Fine Print or vetting the "mercy killing" mindset of the attending.
I had almost the same thing happen with my dad. Hospitals, like any institution, are not reasoning, compassionate places. They’re run by processes and procedures, not logic or reason.
My sweetheart came out of surgery in a state of delirium. He couldn’t eat due to injury in the face & throat area. It was during covid & they couldn’t find a skilled nursing facility who would take him. One doctor said I should consider removing his food & letting him die that way. This was in Utah. I was pretty shocked by that. The local hospice group agreed to treat him as a home health patient & I brought him home. But he did pass within a week. The coroner couldn’t figure out what to put on the death certificate. Finally put ‘failure to thrive.’ Dealing with these issues is definitely not fun. But our medical community seems to think it’s best to shuffle everyone off this mortal coil. I wonder why they decided to become doctors.
Dehydration is ANYTHING BUT PAINLESS. in my practice and my medical judgment hydration is a part of comfort care of comfort care is the expressed will of the patient either through the patient or the patient’s selected proxies whose duty it is to speak for the goals of the patient which is often confused for directing medical care.