Posted on 12/29/2009 9:35:32 PM PST by malkee
In some of the rooms in the hospice unit at Franklin Hospital, in Valley Stream on Long Island, the patients were sleeping because their organs were shutting down, the natural process of death by disease. But at least one patient had been rendered unconscious by strong drugs.
The patient, Leo Oltzik, an 88-year-old man with dementia, congestive heart failure and kidney problems, was brought from home by his wife and son, who were distressed to see him agitated, jumping out of bed and ripping off his clothes. Now he was sleeping soundly with his mouth wide open.
“Obviously, he’s much different than he was when he came in,” Dr. Edward Halbridge, the hospice medical director, told Mr. Oltzik’s wife. “He’s calm, he’s quiet.”
Mr. Oltzik’s life would end not with a bang, but with the drip, drip, drip of an IV drug that put him into a slumber from which he would never awaken. That drug, lorazepam, is a strong sedative. Mr. Oltzik was also receiving morphine, to kill pain. This combination can slow breathing and heart rate, and may make it impossible for the patient to eat or drink. In so doing, it can hasten death.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
This book is really good:
How we Die by Dr Nuland
http://www.amazon.com/How-We-Die-Reflections-Chapter/dp/0679742441
Were they all writhing in pain? I know some cancer deaths, in particular, are very painful. I did hear of one very difficult death, complicated by the fact that the patient was very fearful. Perhaps in these situations morphine would be acceptable, but only in an amount that would not cause them to die.
Every circumstance is different. It is never easy. And to make it sound like hospice workers want to kill everyone is outrageous.
I said the first thing they do is collect the morphine. You are confirming that fact. What they do with it varies, of course. The reason they collect it so fast is it’s so dangerous.... it can and does kill.
My clinical instructor told me that the morphine is given to reduce “air hunger” that is often present in terminal patients. It suppresses the bodies desire to breath and therefore reduces the obvious symptoms of lack of oxygen. Patients do not display signs of agonal breathing, gasping etc. I really think it is more of a “comfort” to the family than the patient. Depending on the actual dosage of morphine, it may not actually be illegal. Maybe it depends on what state you live in.
If you KNOW a person was murdered by morphine, go tell the police. Otherwise you are just sermonizing.
I have a sister who takes morphine every day and has since age 45. She has fibromyalgia and could not function at all without it. Maybe one day she will commit suicide, as so many patients with fibromyalgia do, just to escape the utter misery of constant unbearable pain.
She would tell you to take your sermon and shove it where the sun doesn’t shine.
My mother's exit was much different.
Also from cancer, in hospice, drugged into unconsciousness. Medical decisions for mother were made by a sister. Bad decisions, IMO.
Hospice workers are in the business of death. Whether or not they “want to kill” patients is a matter of interpretation. When you given someone an overdose of drugs that causes them to die earlier than they otherwise would have, that is euthanasia, to use a euphemism.
I misunderstood you. But the reason they get rid of it is not for your more nefarious reasons. It’s because it’s a controlled substance and can’t be left around when the person it’s issued to is gone.
“And to make it sound like hospice workers want to kill everyone is outrageous.”
Not to be disrepctfull, but that’s funny! It’s kind of their job. Have you ever seen a hospice worker trying to cure anybody? I wonder if they would get fired if their patients got better?
It would certainly be a tempting target for theft, and might beckon to the suicidally inclined.
Well, at least I’m not a shameful outrageous liar anymore..
Lmo said nothing about people who take it voluntarily under a physician’s supervision. Take a chill pill (so to speak).
I have a sister who takes morphine every day and has since age 45. She has fibromyalgia and could not function at all without it. Maybe one day she will commit suicide, as so many patients with fibromyalgia do, just to escape the utter misery of constant unbearable pain.
She would tell you to take your sermon and shove it where the sun doesn’t shine.
First, my Uncle did not have any pressing health problem other than he was probably in moderate to moderately severe stages of dementia - but he did have his good days ...
Second, he was not in any pain ...
Third, I do not know whether he was "murdered" - I only posted what I felt about the situation ...
Fourth, you and your sister can take a flying leap - butt out of it. You take care of your family, I'll take care of mine ...
Oh no, you’re just a pesky conservative pro-lifer now.
Maybe Hildy’s family is liberally bent and so opted for soft euthanasia. The wishes of those not so bent ought to be honored.
All this is a very touchy subject, and 2 people will give you 4 opinions. I would hate to be in the profession and be exposed to these tough decisions day in and day out. No matter what you do, someone will invariably disagree with you and be right somehow.
God bless the people who endure this for us.
It is certainly wise to think through what you would wish for if suffering from a terminal disease, well ahead of the time that it might be needed, and try to secure that, though Bummercare may moot it all in a very ugly way.
Well said BCC. As my Dad (who died in my arms while on morphine under hospice care) used to say, It’ll be our turn, if we live long enough...
This is a response for several posters here.
Last year, my dad entered hospice in the last stages of terminal congestive heart failure with only a few days left to live, an extremely common way to die these days. What happens is that a person’s lungs slowly fill with fluid and they slowly drown. This can take hours to days and is a truly horrible and excruciating way to die, and there is nothing that can prevent this from happening.
As this process intensifies, a liquid opiate and a benzodiazepine like lorazepam (Ativan) is given orally with an eye dropper in increasing doses. Frequently Diphenhydramine (Benadryl) is also administered as the opiates often cause itching.
Eventually the doses are high enough that the dying person is essentially in a drug-induced coma, but it is not the drugs that kill the person. It is the lungs filling up and drowning the person that kills them. The drugs do not hasten this happening, they simply render the dying person from being able to feel it.
These drugs are a mercy for both the dying person and the ones who love them. My dad’s family (me included) attended by dad’s death, and watched him carefully the whole time for signs of discomfort, and the hospice staff increased the dosage each time at our request whenever we detected signs of discomfort. It took my dad fully 48 hours to die after he became completely unconscious, so his suffering would have been unimaginable if he had been conscious.
The staff at this hospice were true angels of mercy.
A hospice worker's job is to care for terminally ill patients. It is not their job to hasten the process. I'm sure there are some who do, just as there are doctors and nurses who do.
My opinion is that if the patient is unbearable pain, then he should be given an appropriate amount of morphine. Morphine should never be overdosed to hasten death, but if the patient is in so much pain that the appropriate amount of morphine to help with the pain could be dangerous, then you take that chance. But purposely euthanizing a human being is wrong.
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