Where should terminal patients go if not to hospice? Hospice has a very different objective than hospitals - to make patients comfortable.
I am all for Hospice - Hospice can be well done as in Branford they will let the patients smoke, drink brandy whatever makes them happy. Family can sit around and pump morphine on their own if they sense discomfort I can not say how much better it gets in branford if you have to go that’s the place to kick the bucket.
But there is Hospice that can be actually tortuous. I had my father and an uncle both meet their last days in nursing home hospice. Once the decision was made the course of action there was to completely immobilize them with Atavan(sp?) which is a muscle relaxant not a pain killer, so from observation it looks like they are just resting
I believe my father and uncle where at times fully conscious but could not move or even blink an eye and I had big fights with the doctors to get them enough morphine. I could tell they were in pain because there would be some agitation occuring just before the next atavan shot. The morphine was tough to get them to administer as they gave them the atavan they would stop moving and the doctor would say “see they are not complaining”
In nursing homes here in CT. you can walk in but in a couple of days you will not be walking or continent because they dose the patients up with Atavan to keep them in bed. With 2 nurses for 20 patients it allows them more control, keeps the patients from walking out, wandering about, just where they want them for medication, meals, doctors visits.
My Aunt was in a local nursing home and I went to visit her during a mealtime and the woman in the next bed was too drugged up to eat and when the nurse came to collect the meal I pointed out she hadn’t eaten the nurse just said she must not have been hungry and left the room.
Hospice is nice if done well, but it sucks getting old - Massive heart attack is the way to go