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Paramedics told: 'Let accident victims die if they want to' in new row over patient rights (UK)
UK Daily Mail ^
| 4/17/09
| Daniel Martin
Posted on 04/18/2009 11:42:54 AM PDT by wagglebee
Health Service paramedics have been told not to resuscitate terminally-ill patients who register on a controversial new database to say they want to die.
It has been set up by the ambulance service in London for hundreds of people who have only a few months to live so that they may register their 'death wishes' in advance.
It is believed to be the first in the country, but other trusts around the country are expected to follow suit to comply with Government guidelines which state that patients' wishes should be taken into account, even at the point of death.
Patients' groups and doctors have welcomed the scheme, but it has met opposition from pro-life groups who say it violates the sanctity of life.
The system would come into play if a cancer patient, for example, was in serious pain and rang 999 for help to alleviate the suffering.
But if the paramedics arrived and the patient was close to death, he or she would not be resuscitated if such a request was registered on the database.
This would also be the case if a patient on the database was being transferred between hospitals, and had a heart attack.
Dominica Roberts from the Pro-Life Alliance said: 'This is very sad and very dangerous. It's another step along the slippery slope, at the bottom of which is euthanasia as we see in Holland.
'Paramedics should be there to save lives. They should not be there to let patients die. The medical profession should not agree with someone's belief that their life is worthless.'
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events; United Kingdom
KEYWORDS: bioethics; deatheaters; euthanasia; hillarycare; lifehate; moralabsoltues; prolife; rinoromney; romney; romneycare; socializedmedicine
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Dominica Roberts from the Pro-Life Alliance said: 'This is very sad and very dangerous. It's another step along the slippery slope, at the bottom of which is euthanasia as we see in Holland.' This is EXACTLY what the culture of death wants.
1
posted on
04/18/2009 11:42:55 AM PDT
by
wagglebee
To: cgk; Coleus; cpforlife.org; narses; Salvation; 8mmMauser
2
posted on
04/18/2009 11:43:34 AM PDT
by
wagglebee
("A political party cannot be all things to all people." -- Ronald Reagan, 3/1/75)
To: 185JHP; 230FMJ; 50mm; 69ConvertibleFirebird; Aleighanne; Alexander Rubin; ...
3
posted on
04/18/2009 11:44:05 AM PDT
by
wagglebee
("A political party cannot be all things to all people." -- Ronald Reagan, 3/1/75)
To: wagglebee
Is this not equivalent to a DNR?
4
posted on
04/18/2009 11:49:15 AM PDT
by
JoSixChip
To: wagglebee
So kinda like when they found that overweight man unconscious and they decided to let him die. Is this what this is all about?
5
posted on
04/18/2009 11:49:18 AM PDT
by
driftdiver
(I could eat it raw, but why do that when I have a fire.)
To: wagglebee
Who signed me up? WTF? (gasp)...
6
posted on
04/18/2009 11:50:07 AM PDT
by
allmost
To: wagglebee
How sad a place are the slums of London. The rich people there, even doctors, just step over the bodies of the dead and dying.
7
posted on
04/18/2009 11:50:37 AM PDT
by
muawiyah
To: JoSixChip
Not really ~ an accident happens ~ someone is hurt ~ this particular order will cause a serious delay in assisting the injured because the bureaucrats want the first responders to call up and check the list first.
Your local public streets really aren't like hospitals you know.
8
posted on
04/18/2009 11:51:48 AM PDT
by
muawiyah
To: wagglebee
“Hello 911 whats your emergency?”
“I am having a heart attack”
“Your number is registered to James A Smith is that you?”
“Yes, please hurry”
“Sir, your registered as being against being put on life support. But you are an organ donor, so I have canceled the emergency ambulance but they will be along soon to collect your organs. Good day sir.”
9
posted on
04/18/2009 11:51:57 AM PDT
by
GeronL
(TYRANNY SENTINEL. http://tyrannysentinel.blogspot.com)
To: JoSixChip
Car accident... ambulance arrives.. the cop says hurry... but after checking the man he has a DNR in the database and the ambulance leaves.
nice.
10
posted on
04/18/2009 11:52:47 AM PDT
by
GeronL
(TYRANNY SENTINEL. http://tyrannysentinel.blogspot.com)
To: JoSixChip
Is this not equivalent to a DNR? It's not even close.
11
posted on
04/18/2009 11:53:43 AM PDT
by
wagglebee
("A political party cannot be all things to all people." -- Ronald Reagan, 3/1/75)
To: wagglebee
Mitt Romney chortles as he inflicts socialized medicine (HillaryCARE=ROmneyCARE)
upon the Massachusetts citizens, without one of their votes.
"National Health Preview - The Massachusetts debacle, coming soon to your neighborhood."
"Three years ago, the former Massachusetts Governor had the inadvertent good sense to create the "universal" health-care program that the White House and Congress now want to inflict on the entire country.
It is proving to be instructive, as Mr. Romney's foresight previews what President Obama, Max Baucus, Ted Kennedy and Pete Stark are cooking up for everyone else.
In Massachusetts's latest crisis, Governor Deval Patrick and his Democratic colleagues are starting to move down the path that government health plans always follow when spending collides with reality -- i.e., price controls.
As costs continue to rise, the inevitable results are coverage restrictions and waiting periods. It was only a matter of time.
They're trying to manage the huge costs of the subsidized middle-class insurance program that is gradually swallowing the state budget.
The program provides low- or no-cost coverage to about 165,000 residents, or three-fifths of the newly insured, and is budgeted at $880 million for 2010, a 7.3% single-year increase that is likely to be optimistic.
The state's overall costs on health programs have increased by 42% (!) since 2006.
What really whipped along RomneyCare were claims that health care would be less expensive if everyone were covered.
But reducing costs while increasing access are irreconcilable issues.
Mr. Romney should have known better before signing on to this not-so-grand experiment, especially since the state's "free market" reforms that he boasts about have proven to be irrelevant when not fictional.
Only 21,000 people have used the "connector" that was supposed to link individuals to private insurers."
A Very Sick Health Plan; Bay States Grand Experiment Fails [RomneyCare]
"The Daily News Record, Harrisonburg, Va. - 2009-03-31 "
"For folks increasingly leery of President Obamas plan to radically overhaul Americas health-care system,
or 17 percent of the nations economy, all this could hardly have come at a better time
that is, fiscal troubles aplenty within Repubican Mitt Romneys brainchild, Massachusetts grand experiment in universal health care."
"Initiated on Mr. Romneys gubernatorial watch in 2006, this experiment has fallen on hard times, and predictably so.
Even though the Bay State commenced its program with a far smaller percentage of uninsured residents than exists nationwide,
RomneyCare is threatening to bankrupt the state. Budgeted for Fiscal Year 2010 at $880 million,
or 7.3 percent more than a year ago, this plan, aimed at providing low- or no-cost health coverage to roughly 165,000 residents,
has caused Massachusetts overall expenditures on all health-related programs to jump an astounding 42 percent since 2006.
So what does Mr. Romneys successor, Democratic Gov. Deval Patrick, propose as a remedy for these skyrocketing costs?
Well, whaddya think? The standard litany of prescriptions (no pun intended) price controls and spending caps, for a start, and then, again predictably, waiting periods and limitations on coverage.
As in Europe and Canada, so too in Massachusetts. And, we feel certain, everyone from Mr. Romney to Mr. Patrick said, It would never happen here.
But then, such things are inevitable when best-laid plans, with all their monstrous costs, run smack-dab into fiscal reality.
"Hospital patients 'left in agony'"
"Patients were allegedly left screaming in pain and drinking from flower vases on a nightmare hospital ward.
Between 400 and 1,200 more people died than would have been expected at Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust over three years, a damning Healthcare Commission report said.
The watchdog's investigation found inadequately trained staff who were too few in number, junior doctors left alone in charge at night and patients left without food, drink or medication as their operations were repeatedly cancelled.
Patients were left in pain or forced to sit in soiled bedding for hours at a time and were not given their regular medication, the Commission heard.
Receptionists with no medical training were expected to assess patients coming in to A&E, some of whom needed urgent care.
Sir Bruce Keogh, medical director of the NHS, said there had been a "gross and terrible breach" of patients' trust and a "complete failure of leadership".
The Healthcare Commission's chairman Sir Ian Kennedy said the investigation followed concerns about a higher than normal death rate at the Trust, which senior managers could not explain.
He said: "The resulting report is a shocking story. Our report tells a story of appalling standards of care and chaotic systems for looking after patients. These are words I have not previously used in any report.
"There were inadequacies in almost every stage of caring for patients. There was no doubt that patients will have suffered and some of them will have died as a result."
Julie Bailey, 47, was so concerned about the care being given to her 86-year-old mother Bella at Stafford Hospital that she and her relatives slept in a chair at her bedside for eight weeks.
She said: "We saw patients drinking out of..."
To: allmost
Hey, folks could do some real damage here. For instance you could sign up the Hildabeast or her handmaiden from Arizona ~ then, if they ever went to England (highly probable in their jobs) and got hurt or sick, they'd already be scheduled from death in the ambulance.
This kind of stuff could drive Secret Service folks nuts.
13
posted on
04/18/2009 11:54:20 AM PDT
by
muawiyah
To: JoSixChip
Is this not equivalent to a DNR? That's my impression.
I wonder how safe the online registry is. Can someone go online and enter a DNR for somebody else without their knowledge? A little conspiratorial, I know, but I'm just sayin' . . .
14
posted on
04/18/2009 11:54:25 AM PDT
by
FoxInSocks
(B. Hussein Obama: Central Planning Czar)
To: muawiyah
To: GeronL
That is precisely what will happen, a guy will roll up with sirens blaring and jump out with a bloody apron and a set of knives.
16
posted on
04/18/2009 11:55:19 AM PDT
by
wagglebee
("A political party cannot be all things to all people." -- Ronald Reagan, 3/1/75)
To: muawiyah; JoSixChip
Not really ~ an accident happens ~ someone is hurt ~ this particular order will cause a serious delay in assisting the injured because the bureaucrats want the first responders to call up and check the list first. It's more than that.
Let's say an elderly person has a DNR due to a heart condition or something. They are walking down the street and get hit by a car and their leg is broken -- what then? Should they be left to suffer in agony with a broken leg? The trauma will surely kill them, but it will have NOTHING to do with the heart condition.
17
posted on
04/18/2009 12:02:40 PM PDT
by
wagglebee
("A political party cannot be all things to all people." -- Ronald Reagan, 3/1/75)
To: Diogenesis
govcare sounds so wonderful...,. I mean onederful
18
posted on
04/18/2009 12:03:27 PM PDT
by
GeronL
(TYRANNY SENTINEL. http://tyrannysentinel.blogspot.com)
To: y'all
Driving Into Walls - BBC4 Documentary
Tonight you will learn how to disable your airbag
so as to be able to drive, at high speed, into a
wall for a painless way to ‘wall-out’.
High Points:
Disabling airbag before ‘walling-out’
Choosing a sturdy ‘wall-out’ wall
Register with want-to-die database
Minimum petrol - you don’t want to burn
How to assure state pays for burial
Revise your will before you ‘wall-out’
Writing a meaningful ‘wall-out’ note
Getting even? ‘Wall-out’ with your ex’s auto.
19
posted on
04/18/2009 12:11:53 PM PDT
by
Cyber Ninja
(His legacy is a stain OnTheDress)
To: GeronL
Sir, your registered as being against being put on life support. But you are an organ donor, so I have canceled the emergency ambulance but they will be along soon to collect your organs. Good day sir. Back when the Monty Python troupe filmed "The Meaning of Life", they included "Part V - Live Organ Transplants".
I'd say the U.K. is just a few steps removed from seeing that actually occur. It looks as though they'll first see the scene from Grail where the fellow (equivalent of today's Paramedics) "assists" the old fellow in "getting on the cart".
Guys, those were *comedies*, not blueprints for social planning.
20
posted on
04/18/2009 12:13:06 PM PDT
by
Charles Martel
("Endeavor to persevere...")
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