Most people don’t understand what hospice is all about.
By the time their loved one is not well they don’t realize that there is a process in place to dehydrate and starve a terminally ill patient.
I found hospice to be quite different than that. My mother had already starved and dehydrated herself because that’s what Alzheimer’s patients do. Hospice helped me understand what was going on and relieved me of the notion that I wasn’t doing all I could for her.
They gave me the tools and the understanding to deal with what was happening. I think I was lucky I called on them when I did. She died less than two weeks after their first visit and I had no idea how fast that was coming.
We treat our animals better.
Hospice DOES NOT starve or dehydrate people! Insinuating that we do is both ignorant and insulting!
WE alleviate uncomfortable symptoms. Period. God decides when our patients are called home.
LJ, when a dementia patient is unable to swallow, there are no good choices. And aspiration pneumonia is not a pleasant way to go. The real question is who is best equipped to decide for the patient who has no one to make the hard choices. The legislation does not address this satisfactorily. Not to my mind.