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.
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.
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.
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.
She is a Scientologist and its costs big money to move up the ladder in that cult.
Terri was a victim if that cult too.
The vile husband hired Scientologist lawyer .
I don’t know about that. The daughter fought to find him and get him out of a situation where he seemed to be suffering from neglect and lack of care. Now, she seems to be asking that the court uphold his expressed desire.