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. 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.
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 his terms.
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.
But clearly, as this old article and new examples prove, euthanasia can be made legal if you're not careful with Fine Print or vetting the "mercy killing" mindset of the attending.
I’m not a doctor, but it’s my understanding that dehydration is not a fun way to go.
Possible ping of interest.
I will ALWAYS request food and water.
I will insist on minimum pain relief.
I'm a 16 yr. cancer survivor and have already been there.
I prefer to do all of my suffering this side of the veil.
Didn’t Jeb! allow this to happen back when he was Governor here in Florida?
That’s how lots of old folks, especially, get finally done in: they intentionally get sent home without the fluids they need to stay alive.
My dad died from this. He lost the will to live and then the ability to live.
A few years ago I developed sepsis and was given a less than 1% chance of survival, was on a ventilator and my organs started failing. The doctors all wanted to pull the plug, they’d call my sister in the middle of the night saying his heart stopped again and we might beak his ribs trying to resuscitate him, and again asked to stop treatment. She refused. The next day they said my brain didn’t receive oxygen for 15 minutes on several occasions causing severe brain damage and that it was likely I’d be a vegetable, and that it was cruel that my sister wouldn’t accede to stopping treatment.
Fortunately my sister is very pro-life and didn’t give in, and I’m grateful for that. I was in my early 60’s at the time and got the feeling that if you are over a certain age, they start taking the attitude of “well he’s lived a long life, let’s not bother taking extraordinary measures to save him”. Now I’m afraid to be hospitalized for anything.
Can’t judge this by one case. Each case is not at all the same. A whole lot of personal beliefs and ideology change when a loved one screams and moans in pain 24-7 for a month straight. There comes a time when you want to make it stop for them as quick as possible and in anyway possible that is legal.
Some have even confessed after a loved one passed that there were times they wanted to put a pillow over their face a few times to put them out of their misery. It is an absolute moral dilemma when the best thing would be for them to go because living those last days are even more torturous than anything the caretakers could do that might be considered immoral.
There is indeed a time when anything that can hasten the inevitable is the right thing to do. We sometimes selfishly hold on for us, not for them... For them extending the agony and suffering can be even more cruel.
She was unconscious for the last three days.
Shortly after her death, it suddenly and shockingly occurred to me that she did not die of cancer.
She died of thirst.
When my time comes, I want a big blast of fentanyl on DAY ONE!
A lot of people have living wills/advanced health care directives that state that if they can’t eat, drink of breathe on their own due to a persistent condition (something they aren’t expected to get over), they don’t want or IV feeding or hydration or artificial ventilation. If medical staff complies, it’s denying them something necessary to sustaining life, with a foreseeable consequence.
Legally it isn’t euthanasia but the end result is the same.
Palliative sedation also can be used to hasten death without crossing the legal threshold to euthanasia. If the patient has chronic pain they can give more and more pain medication until the pain is under control. If the patient dies from an overdose before their pain is relieved, at least they got the pain to stop.
I have known a few critical care RNs who confided in me that it isn’t uncommon for a nurse to deliberately administer a lethal dose when a patient is end-stage of a condition and suffering terribly because they know their death won’t look suspicious and isn’t likely to trigger a coroner’s autopsy.
We’ve had the equivalent of euthanasia for some time but nobody wants to know how the saugage gets made.