I'm with you. My father died screaming because the doctors told me they couldn't give him any more morphine without killing him. They moved him into a private room so he wouldn't disturb the other patients and staff.
Ugh! We had nearly the same experience with my mother. She was in the process of dying; she wasn't going to get "hooked" on morphine, and they doled it out so sparingly, it was heartbreaking. Your father and my mother died in a way we do not allow our dogs to die.
That is terrible and my heart goes out to you and your family for having to deal with something like that.
Was your father in hospice? It is my understanding that when the pain becomes too much to bear, that it was common practice for doctors to give an extra amount of morphine - enough to cause the person to die of what appears to be just the body giving out.
I don't understand that. They can administer morphine such that it will render a person unconscious, but still breathing. This happened to my dad, who was riddled with cancer. Took him about a week and a half to die. At moments like that, you want to trust the physicians, but in retrospect, his was more than likely a mercy killing. And to be honest with you, I'm ambivalent about it now. He didn't want extraordinary care, or resuscitation, but while he was dying of cancer, I'm now convinced he died of starvation in a drug-induced coma. We were told on a Sunday that his body was shutting down, and that he'd be dead within 48 hours. He lasted another 11 days. The whole thing was a no-win situation.
I am not in a position to comment on Dr. K., but I am most certainly in a position to comment about dying with dignity.
Both of my parents lived long good lives and unfortunately died long-drawn out painful deaths. My Father passed first - I guess we made all the usual mistakes during his illness. When my Mother fell ill 7 years later, we were a bit more experienced and Hospice was very helpful. I think she went much easier than my Father, but she was still angry that the end took so long to come - she wanted the release.
You are so right, no dignity in the pain, or in having someone wipe your bottom and on and on and on. In some ways modern medicine has extended our life expectancy into the realm of painful and burdensome.