Posted on 06/11/2014 4:41:42 PM PDT by Morgana
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Daniel S. Murphy reversed a ruling from Monday that stated that Kasem should receive food, fluids and certain medications until after a court-appointed attorney met with the former radio host and his doctors.
Murphy reviewed additional medical records on Wednesday and concluded that Kasem would endure more pain if he was given food or fluids, attorney Troy Martin said. Martin, who represents Kasem's daughter Kerri, presented the updated information to Murphy during an emergency hearing.
He also presented the judge with documents in which Kasem stated he did not want his life prolonged by food or fluids if he was mentally incapacitated.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.msn.com ...
This blows!
Terri’s list ping please!!
Unfortunately the hospital goes by what the patient has written down as far as treatment he wants received. Same thing happened to my friend’s father in law..he could no longer speak due to a massive stroke, his family showed the paperwork showing that he did not want to be kept alive by any artificial means or receive any food/drink..so that is what they did, abided by his wishes til he died
This is true however there has been a lot of fighting in this family. I am still airing on the side of caution. I don’t like it when a loved one goes out that way. I just don’t like it.
Me either..I hate it too..but whatever is in writing that is what they go by..I think the wife is a looney tune..maybe it was her throwing hamburger meat at the daughter that set off my “She nuts” theory, but all of this fighting no wonder Casey is losing his battle to live, he sees what is going on around him he must feel terrible
Now it begins, all over again. I learned my lesson on last night’s thread, and am not going to get into it again.
For those of you who did not see last night’s thread, the end stages of Parkinson’s, when the desire to eat or drink has been destroyed, tube feeding is no help, and will be harmful.
It is a very different medical situation than that of endured by Terry Schiavo.
I know form very personal experience.
Daughter sounds horrible.
There is no basis for a priori withholding of nutrition except to purposely starve someone to death.
If nutrient supplementation causes a problem, it will be stopped by the doctor.
It doesn’t need to be a priori ordered withheld under any circumstance, which is what this is.
His wife of more than 30 years should have the right to determine this.
The courts are failing and the daughter seems a piece of work.
And, there will be the pro-euthanasia contingent coming around to make condescending insulting and misleading comments.
IMHO if he can’t sustain life on his own than they should pull the plug. It looks like they gave him a good chance with artificial support but it appears that did not work out. My wife and I have been through this experience with our own close relatives. This is happening with some neighbors right now. A tough decision to make.
Thanks for posting, Morgana. Agents of death determining your end.
“IMHO if he can’t sustain life on his own than they should pull the plug.”
—
I agree. I’m 81 years old and my kids know how I feel and my doctor knows how I feel. I have also taken care of the legalities.
.
Unfortunately death frequently brings out the worst in people as they fight for “their legacy”.
The tubes occasionally leak or become blocked or infected, necessitating hospitalizations; they can cause nausea, vomiting or diarrhea. Patients with advanced dementia can’t understand what’s going on, so “they tend to get agitated and try to pull out the tubes,” Dr. Mitchell said, which in turn leads to the use of restraints or psychotropic drugs.
Families often fear that without artificial nutrition and hydration, their relatives will suffer from hunger or thirst. But when researchers talked to cancer patients who were close to death but lucid, Dr. Mitchell said, they didn’t describe painful sensations.
“when the desire to eat or drink has been destroyed, tube feeding is no help, and will be harmful.”
No one has ever argued against that or disagreed that that can happen Jackie.
Parkinson’s disease is a progressive neurological disorder that occurs when vital brain cells that control movement and coordination die or become impaired. Symptoms vary, but the disease is often characterized by uncontrollable shaking, limb stiffness, slow movement and difficulty walking. Studies show that Parkinson’s can also cause a host of other life-altering cognitive and physical changes including difficulty swallowing, chewing, speaking and pushing food through the digestive system, as these functions depend on muscles that may be weakened due to changes in the brain.
Many Parkinson’s patients, especially those in the later stages of the disease, experience difficulty swallowing, a condition known as dysphagia, which can affect their quality of life and cause life-threatening complications like aspiration pneumonia, malnutrition and dehydration, said Leslie Mahler, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the Department of Communicative Disorders at the University of Rhode Island who specializes in adults with neurological disorders. “The complication to be most concerned about is whether food is going down the right way,” she said.
According to the National Institute of Health, the leading cause of death for people with Parkinson’s disease is aspiration pneumonia, which occurs when the lungs and the airways to the lungs get inflamed or infected due to food or liquids going into the lungs when consumed rather than into the stomach. Parkinson’s patients are also at risk for asphyxiation or choking to death due to food blocking the airway and stopping breathing.
It is important to know the warning signs of a swallowing disorder, because some people may appear to be eating and drinking normally, but they are not, said Dr. Mahler, a speech-language pathologist. Early intervention and proper management of swallowing abnormalities are the keys to preventing major complications, she said.
“IMHO if he can’t sustain life on his own than they should pull the plug”
There’s no plug.
Idiocy.
People in this position can be comfortably kept alive for a long time and enjoy their last years with their most loved, and the most loved can have more time to just be with the love of their life.
But the default position now is to starve people to death if they can’t swallow or walk or communicate normally and a health crisis occurs.
My husband had to make the decision for his mom. She had a stroke the very same day my husband found out he had cancer.
When he saw his mom, he realized she was able to communicate, but just not talk. I don’t know if she could nod her head or hold up fingers.
He convinced the doctors to talk to his mom and see what she wanted. She did not want a feeding tube.
The sad thing is that my husband could not stay with her until she passed because he had to come home for a PET scan to see how advanced his cancer was.
He stayed with her for almost a week. She passed the day after he left.
It was awful!
It depends if he’s still conscious. I personally don’t want to spend my last days in a hospital. Nor do I want my children spending 10 years visiting me when I’m not conscious and am drooling and crapping on myself.
In 20 years, I’ve place over a hundred feeding tubes, primarily in elderly and demented individudals. In most of these cases, I serve as a technician. I am not consulted for my advice on whether a feeding tube is in a patient’s interest, but am asked to insert one after the decision has already been made. More than any other gastro procedure I perform, placing these tubes, called PEGs by physicians, is the most troubling. There is no question that gastroenterologists like me are placing more of these tubes than are medically necessary. Over the past few years, several medical papers have documented that providing tube nutrition for patients at the end of life, or with advanced dementia, provides no benefit. It does not prolong or improve life for many of these patients. Why, then, do we do it so often?
MICHAEL KIRSCH, M.D.
I am a full time practicing physician and writer. I write about the joys and challenges of medical practice including controversies in the doctor-patient relationship, medical ethics and measuring medical quality.
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