Catholic nurse recounts hospice horror, says doctor euthanized priest

Renew America ^ | 4/1/11 | Matt C. Abbott

[wagglebee]

Some will recall that March 31 was the sixth anniversary of the court-ordered murder of Terri Schiavo. (Click here to read about the tragedy.)

Terri's execution was, according to Ron Panzer, president of Hospice Patients Alliance, "accomplished at The Hospice of the Florida Suncoast." He notes that the hospice's CEO, Mary Labyak, "has been a member of the board of directors of the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization as well as Partnership for Caring, a successor to the Euthanasia Society of America."

Panzer also notes that Michael Schiavo's attorney, George Felos, a euthanasia advocate, was chairman of Suncoast's board when Terri was brought there for the purpose of killing her.

"The public still does not realize that Terri was taken from us to fulfill a hospice-euthanasia partnership, fulfilling their agenda in an 'in your face' demonstration of what they can do, are doing, and will do to others," asserts Panzer.

In recent days, Panzer received the following (edited) e-mail from registered nurse and Illinoisan Wendy Ludwig, who recounts the horror of witnessing the euthanizing of an elderly Catholic priest:

'Hello, I spoke with you [Ron Panzer] some years ago about the many killings taking place within hospice. You may remember me; I'm an RN, BSN. Not long after I spoke with you, my father died of leukemia, and the following year my mother was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and died in 2009.

'I'm contacting you again, asking for your help in trying to somehow stop the horrible hospice killings and euthanasia that occur even in hospitals. I know so many people not even terminally ill whom hospice quickly killed. I'm so upset, horrified and angry about this. In my area, the hospice went on an 'advertising campaign,' writing articles in the local newspaper, handing out flyers to doctors' offices and trying to drum up support from local clergy by going around to each church asking to set up a meeting with them so they can 'explain the benefits of hospice.'

'It's truly terrible where I live. It's not uncommon to see a patient eating in a restaurant with his or her family one week and the following week be dead after hospice has come in. When my mother was ill, she made absolutely clear that she did not want hospice anywhere near her, yet the hospital forced drugs on her, did many tactics to hasten her death and ended up doing as they pleased, coming up with some strange medical power-of-attorney that no one had seen before. It was truly awful. For the rest of my life it will affect me, and there is never a day that I do not think about it. I did everything I possibly could, but they still found ways to not treat infections, to deny her enough fluid, to do so many things, and it did not matter what I said or did — or what she said, for that matter.

'I'm currently seeking a new career, because as a pro-life Catholic, I cannot in good conscience work in hospitals anymore. Even the Catholic hospitals support hospice in one way or another. I can tell you honestly that I'm not aware of any hospice that is good. Everyone I know who has gone to a hospice in any state that I know of has been murdered by hospice.

'It's been so overwhelming to me. What's so unbelievable is the way that hospice can convince people they are doing 'good' and 'mercy' for their loved ones. It appears to me that they use a type of forceful brainwashing where they take the family at their most vulnerable time, convince them the only way the patient won't suffer is by using hospice, and lie to them about what is actually happening. Even when people feel like something isn't right, they do nothing, somehow believing what hospice has told them. With such an 'ad campaign' in the newspapers and elsewhere, I don't know how to begin to make people understand what hospice is doing. It's notable also that once a family member dies in hospice care, people do not want to hear the truth; it seems they defend hospice profoundly, probably because they don't want to think that they have just let their loved one be murdered.

'I witnessed a doctor euthanizing a Catholic priest who stated in no uncertain terms that he did not want hospice. The priest did not have cancer or any other terminal illness. He was 94, still saying Mass and very active. When the priest needed knee surgery for an injury to his knee, the doctor decided it was time to call in hospice. The priest adamantly and angrily refused. So the doctor took his medicine away and started to give him 'pain pills' even though the priest said he was not in pain.

'The priest was in a nursing home following his knee injury and was getting physical therapy. He had been also prescribed large doses of Coumadin by the doctor. I went to visit him one day and found him bruising all over, so I demanded that the nursing home call an ambulance. When they refused to call an ambulance and said the doctor was aware, I told them the priest was bruised all over his body and that he needed to go to the hospital. I told them that if an ambulance was not called, I was going to call the police. He was taken to the hospital and was told he had been given too much Coumadin and that he would need to stay in the hospital for a few days.

'While in the hospital, the doctor refused him food and fluids. I called the elder abuse hotline and when the doctor found out they were coming, he began IV feedings, but also began drugging the priest with morphine. The priest told me what they were doing. I waited for the doctor with a friend and I told him I was aware of what was going on and that the elder abuse hotline would again be called. The doctor pounded on the patient's chest and said, 'Does he seem awake enough to you?!' He called the family, which lived in another state, and they came. I received a call one day asking for me to come and visit Father because he was asking to see me. I went to see him; he was resting comfortably.

'He was in an ICU and I was watching the monitors. His heart rate and breathing were regular and stable. Not long after I arrived, I was taken to a waiting room and the family was there. A short time later the nurse came and got the family but told me to stay in the waiting room. I had a terrible feeling; I went to the nurses' station and the curtain was pulled in Father's room. I heard a priest saying prayers over him, the family in the room as well. I was told I could not go in. I told them I had forgotten my purse in the room, but I was not allowed to go in and get it.

'I stood outside and heard the nurse telling the family that they were giving him another dose of medicine and taking off his oxygen. I was told to go back to the waiting room. I knew what was happening: The doctor had viciously called me to sit in the waiting room while he euthanized the priest. I left the hospital, and before I got home, I received a call that the priest had passed away.

'About a month later, the local newspaper printed a story about an 'honor' this doctor was given by the hospital. It seemed quite planned in its timing. Right after the priest died, an anonymous letter was sent to the doctor informing him that people were aware of what he was doing to patients. A Catholic nun had also witnessed this same doctor giving a fentanyl patch in a terminal dose to another nun, who died within hours of receiving the patch. A few weeks after that letter was sent, the story appeared in the paper 'honoring' this doctor. The woman who was with me when the doctor pounded on the priest's chest thought that because the doctor was on the hospital's board, the 'honor' was probably given to distract people who may have heard of his tactics from believing what was said about him. The doctor still practices at the hospital.

'I have many other horror stories.'

[wagglebee]

See my post #19.

[cherry]

as a nurse, I think the use of extraordinary measures in very chronically ill elderly with little chance of ever being awake, let alone live, is wrong headed to say the least... the Catholic ethic is that extraordinary measures are not required and one didn't have to "break the bank" so to speak to prevent such a death...

but people that are awake, talking...they need HOPE...and Hospice offers no hope....my mother was basically told "don't bother with the pills or the food cuz you're going to die anyway"...and it took her 3 months to do it...

instead,I wish she had been given some hope...something to grasp on to....

be careful with Hospice people....they do not deliberately want to do harm, but its their JOB to usher people onto death...the sooner the better...

[LoveUSA]

I had two aunts who were victims of attempted euthanasia by private nursing homes in PA. The nursing home stopped feeding my eldest aunt until my mother stepped in and raised holy h*ll. The other one had the "flu" and the nursing home said she couldn't keep food down so they stopped feeding her. Thank God my mother and I visited her that weekend. When we saw that my aunt was too weak to talk to us, we called her son in MN so he could exercise his authority. Once they starting administering small amounts of Ensure to my aunt she recovered quickly and lived for several years after.

My father was killed by the local hospital when the staff rolled him on his side to perform a colonoscopy. He had had abdominal surgery and was retaining fluids like a burn victim which caused his entire body to swell up. The hospital thought they should go in and scope out the problem. He died immediately of a heart attack. I have heard that this is how nursing homes "hurry patients along"...they roll them on their left side to overstress the heart.

Sucks.

[metmom]

In light of this, it behooves everyone to make sure they know where they’re going when their time comes.

Nobody knows when they’re going to be murdered, whether by some deadbeat, addict thug on the street, or some thug dressed in the *respectable* garb of the medical profession.

They are both killers.

[Conservativegreatgrandma]

My mom just died Nov. 4 under hospice care and I can emphatically say we had no experiences like this. My mom had cancer and a couple of weeks before her death she had an especially strong episode of severe pain.

We were begging the nursing home to do something for the pain.

The hospice people came regularly but one day took us aside and asked us for our wishes. They said they could keep her drugged to where she would be fairly pain free but yet, not able to communicate with us much or they could back off with the drugs so she could be more alert. Our wishes were that they keep her as pain free as possible.

I feel totally comfortable with our decision and would do the same thing again and there is no one more pro-life than I. All the way through it, I said that in whatever decisions I had to make I would do it with the knowledge that I was honoring God in any of my decisions.

[Yet_Again]

My sympathy on your loss. My father passed away years ago - it was expected - but it’s never easy. As far as I know, there’s no science that would support the “rolling left will over stress the heart idea” - unless the patient was so intolerant of preload that he was that close to passing on already. Rolling pregnant patients is commonly done to prevent compression of the IVC by the gravid uterus. I suppose something similar might happen in a patient with an abdominal compartment syndrome or something of the sort but still it would be exceedingly rare (something that would go into a medical journal I’d imagine).

For those of you who have had good experiences with hospice, count your blessings.

[Mercat]

My mother also had hospice in her home which was then an assisted living facility. A nun was her visitor but did not administer meds. I did. Because she was on hospice, she was allowed to have morphine. She died because her skin was gradually deteriorating, a very painful death had it not been for the morphine. I did administer it so that she didn’t have to climb in and out of pain. She slipped away knowing she was loved and knowing she was going home. My dad, who had died some years earlier, slipped away the next day. He had been waiting for her.

[imfrmdixie]

I am a nurse and worked in Hospice for many years and I dare say that it was the most rewarding work I have done in my long career. It takes special people to be “good” at their duties in a Hospice setting. Not everyone is qualified to work in that field. Hospice is a wonderful program. It is not about dying...it is about living...and anyone that truly knows what Hospice is all about would disagree with all the negativity on this site.

Yes, there are “bad” experiences with Hospice because there are people that work in it that do not understand the principles nor reason for Hospice in the first place. I had the honor and privilege of entering someone’s life and home at the most personal event of their entire period on this earth. I had the honor of being there to help them come to that final door in as much peace and comfort as could be given.

I resent all who imply that every Hospice is a death trap...a promotion of euthanesia....if you study Dame Saunders (England) who founded the first Hospice you will find she said there was no need for euthanesia if comfort was given and pain eliminated at the time of approaching death. I loved my work in Hospice and I will ALWAYS hold my head up proudly and say I was a Hospice nurse...and I thank God that there are those who feel identical to me.

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

At this point, it would probably be a very good idea to find out which hospitals and doctors are practicing involuntary euthanasia, and to make sure that elderly family members have passports. If they are at risk, taking them on a “Mexican vacation”, to a hospital south of the border may be the only way of saving their life. A lot of their hospitals are quite satisfactory, and euthanizing patients is not done.

Elderly people should not be left without a competent guard in a hospital setting. They will often be passed over in an emergency room, even if in distress. Women especially are treated as if they are expendable.

More and more there are signs of “institutional contempt” of the elderly, bordering on hatred. This may be spreading out among the medical community as a whole.

[imfrmdixie]

And, Doctor, I can also tell many stories of how physicians have abused dying patients by putting them through torturous tests and treatments when there was absolutely no hope of their recovery. Many physicians who line their own pockets by dragging someone who is terminal through hell so that they can pay their mortgage payments, car payments, utilities et all. I have seen patients being taken to doctor’s offices in their last moments of life..going through the pain of the travel to that doctor..only to have a few more moments, an hour or so left of their life spent in pain and misery. So, don’t act as if Doctors who believe they are little gods and have the duty to try to give someone an eternal life on earth are blameless in the misery of a dying soul.

[George from New England]

Do you really think they left anything incriminating in her records?

[Brian Kopp DPM]

A close friend of mine, a retired priest, was euthanized in a similar situation:

I first met Fr. Gerard Ream in 1998 while doing a house call for his mother, Dorothy. A brief initial conversation with them revealed that he was living in a small apartment only a block from my Podiatry practice, and that we shared many common traditional Catholic and pro-life interests. Dorothy later told me that after several years of marriage, she and her husband thought they could not have children, and they prayed to St. Gerard Majella for a child. After several years, Fr. Ream was born, and was named after St. Gerard. A first class relic of St. Gerard was one of Fr. Ream's prized possessions, and Dorothy maintained a deep devotion to St. Gerard until her death at age 101.

Fr. Ream soon became a close friend, and we met frequently for meals. I assisted him with various tasks around his apartment, and he called me frequently for fellowship. He got to know my wife and children well and relied on us for help, as his only brother lived in West Virginia. Fr. Ream eventually developed Parkinson's disease. We offered to take him into our home, but he declined, and entered a nursing home. We continued to visit him often and took him out to dine at his favorite restaurants.

In late 2007 and early 2008, Fr. Ream's health declined rapidly. He left a voice message on my cell phone late on a Wednesday in April 2008, asking me to stop to visit. By the time I was able to visit him two days later, he had been admitted to a local hospital for aspiration pneumonia, and had been diagnosed as "terminal" by the treating physician. He was transferred to the palliative care unit and the treating physician and Fr. Ream's brother insisted that Fr. Ream wanted no extraordinary care to prolong his life.

I was shocked that he was receiving no water, no food, no IV, only Morphine. His Parkinson's was advancing and the aspiration pneumonia was a crisis, but neither were terminal. We were permitted to wet a sponge to moisten his lips, and he would try to suck all the moisture from the sponge, but we were forbidden to give him a drink of water, ostensibly because of the "risk of further aspiration pneumonia." Fr. Ream had shared with me his opposition to passive euthanasia in the past, and he was trying to talk to me, but he had become so dehydrated that he could not form any words.

When the attending physician made rounds, I told him my concern that Fr. Ream was receiving no food or water. The physician asserted that their hospice rules forbid IVs as it only "prolonged the process." A Catholic father of six himself, this doctor then stated, "The public has a misconception that death by dehydration is torturous, but that's not true. Its the most humane way to do this, with the least discomfort. We'll control any discomfort with the Morphine. That's what we're going to do." And with that he looked me in the eye defiantly, turned on his heel and left.

I was speechless. I pleaded with Fr. Ream's brother that he would never have consented to passive euthanasia by dehydration, to no avail.

I have always been pro-life. I had even attended pro-life conferences about euthanasia and I sat on the medical ethics committees of two hospitals in the mid 1990's. I had staff privileges at the hospital in question. But in April 2008, in Fr. Ream's specific case, I simply did not know what to do. I called four good pro-life priests locally, begging for advice.

They all agreed that "You have to do something, Brian!" but none could offer any specific advice, and none could personally intervene to help save their fellow priest. Another priest I consulted recommended I request a medical ethics committee consultation.

Late on a Thursday evening, eight days after Fr. Ream had left the voice message on my cell phone, I spoke with a physicians assistant who was on call for the ethics committee. I told her that he was a good priest and a faithful son of the Church who would never agree to being passively euthanized, and I discussed with her the relevant documents from Rome and the USCCB and Pennsylvania bishops. She asked me to enter these documents in Fr. Ream's chart, and the medical ethics committee would be happy to review the case Friday morning on rounds.

Relieved that there was something I could finally do for this good priest, I went to the hospital Friday morning at 7:00am, asked the unit clerk to formally enter the documents into his chart for the ethics committee consultation, and headed down the hall to visit him.

His room was already empty. Fr. Ream had died of dehydration several hours earlier.

[RFEngineer]

“Not all Hospice care is evil or death warriars.”

I have to agree with you. Both my parents died at home under home hospice care with family around them. I thought they encouraged morphine a little too much - but it was family that administered it most of the time.

There was a complete understanding by my mom and dad of what was going on though when they signed the hospice papers.

For those in a hospital or nursing home - if you do not have family there looking after the patient at all times then you will get what you get - and you might get a hastened death.

[yldstrk]

What a horrible thing to happen to a man of God.

Father God, our society is sick. Please stay the hands of the devil and keep his grip off your family of Christians. I ask it in the Name of Your Son Jesus Christ.

[eastforker]

So true. Here in Texas the hospitals first duty absence a family member present is to provide and preserve life if the patient can not dictate care.They are bound to protect life at all cost.

[Gondring]

Well, Florida’s about as purple as they come. 50/50, just like the nation.

And, of course, Judge George Greer was a Republican.

[bboop]

My mom also had hospice care with cancer pain, and they were so sweet with her.

[Gondring]

The hospice care was done in his home by a group of nuns. They kept his pain level tolerable, but didn't give him so much that he wasn't alert. He went in and out of consciousness the last couple of days, but it wasn't due to the morphine.

I'm glad his wishes were respected, and he was able to manage his remaining time here. My experiences with hospices have likewise been good.

I think hospice started out as a very noble idea, but it has since been basically overtaken by the culture of death and is being used to a lot of people who aren't even actually dying.

I think that's no surprise, given the questioning of individual patient's rights and preferences, and the strong push for "the government knows best" approach. The primary focus of end-of-life care should be what the patient wants.

[Gondring]

I think many physicians will confirm that many oncologists, in particular, have difficulty being honest with their patients.

[Gondring]

Another warning for those who have loved ones receiving medical care, perhaps particularly in VA hospitals... confirm that the need for a “psych consult” being requested isn’t better explained by a medical condition. Perhaps demand that the lab results are looked at with an eye toward explaining your loved one’s behavior or affect.