I have posted on here many times and answered questions every now and then. Dad passed away Oct 7th 2013 from Liver Cancer . He was in a hospice facility for 11 days until he died. The day before he was admitted he was in the hospital and was talking,eating and very clear headed but his ammonia levels were high and he had been very combative, not eating and wouldn't take his meds for 4 days at his nursing home. ( He was in for a Psych Evaluation.) The hospice worker talked to me about admitting him instead of returning to the nursing home. I agreed to this and arrangements were made. He was transferred later that day and was alert and in good spirits. The next morning he was unresponsive and stayed that way until he passed. They gave him morphine and ativan around the clock. He never got any water but they did cleanse his mouth and moisten it with swabs. It seemed like he could hear me the first few days because I would shake his shoulder and say "dad". His eyes seemed to be moving under his eyelids and his mouth would move slightly. I did ask about them lowering his dosages so he could wake up a little. The nurse said he was getting a very small dosage already. I just wonder if the drugs made him unresponsive and if less was used he could have ate and drank and lived longer. I know it was time for him to go but I'm kinda puzzled about his going from complete alertness and straight into unresponsiveness so quick. The nurses did a Great job. I myself don't know how they do it. They treated dad like he was their baby. So gentle and compassionate. I was just wondering if anyone else had the feeling that death felt a little rushed once their loved one was placed in Hospice.
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Prolife is a troll who has infested many threads on this forum in order to manipulate people's emotions for the purpose of (in his/her mind) furthering his/her personal political agenda.
If Prolife were truly interested in doing something about this issue, he/she would be busy lobbying legislators and other decision-makers, and wouldn't have the time to post repetitively in a single forum. Prolife is clearly only interested in provoking reactions and disrupting conversations, and is probably enjoying him/herself very much.
In my real life, I've known a couple of "pro-life" (in this case, anti-abortion) people who've gotten kicked out of their local activist group for being problematic and disruptive, so they've taken their energy online to troll people where there are fewer consequences for their actions.
I'm sorry some of the threads are making people's hearts heavy, but it's quite clear things were going fine until Prolife came along to disrupt supportive conversations and drag all of these hospice threads under. If the moderators would ban Prolife's IP address (this site IS supposed to be non-political), these threads would probably return to some kind of normalcy.
Personally, I'm not one bit sorry for mocking Prolife, because he/she is a big faker who goes around making up new accounts (sockpuppets) on AgingCare.com just to troll us all with more obviously fake "testimonies."
Emotional manipulators are among the worst kind of people, and he/she ought to know some of us see right through him/her.
I have just learned from a medical mal practice attorney that a nursing license does not permit you to give medical advice.
Only a doctor is lisenced to give medical advice.
If you are diagnosing and prescribing treatments and making recommendations, you are giving medical advice, and this is illegal.
I have seen many doing this in these forums.
And also contact the National Institute of Health and let them know that their information is incorrect according to your findings.
Otherwise, nothing is going to be solved by posting your material on the forums.
Your story is a lot like Carly Walden's. Her grandmother was being overdosed by a hospice. She revoked hospice, called an ambulance, and a police escort.
It took her a week to wake up from the drug induced coma she was in.
That's been three years ago now, she is still alive and thriving. And, Carly is now a board member of the Hospice Patients Alliance, a Prolife, patient advocate organization, founded by a hospice nurse, turned whistleblower.
I also flatter myself that it's a sign of mental independence that when comedians lazily turn to allegations like "in Grrrr! County Mississippi it's illegal to study Statistics" - or whatever improbable bylaw they've managed to dig up from the early 19th century - I now demand further-and-better particulars instead of hooting or gasping with horror on cue.
The whole debate makes my heart heavy. No, not every hospice and not every end of life experience is all it should be. Some will have crossed a line. And professions do close ranks, too: only yesterday the General Medical Council dismissed an appeal for the reinstatement of a Paediatrician who was convicted of gross negligence manslaughter over her grotesque neglect of a learning disabled child from whom she withheld treatment for a simple, but ultimately lethal, gut infection. Note, her professional body was *defending* her, on the grounds that if she were permanently removed from practice it would deter others from admitting to their mistakes. The GMC took the view that this wasn't a mistake so much as an absolute dereliction of the most basic duties, and I dare say they profoundly hoped that there won't be any parallel cases for it to be a precedent for.
But then again, it isn't a matter of any government blithely accepting - let alone actively encouraging - the mistreatment of vulnerable, dying patients. It's a matter of their needing a better answer, if this one's not working. And what is the better answer?
Not giving morphine to a person even if she does have a broken arm, apparently. That was in her best interests... how?
That is what I have been doing. I find no support other than your site.
I am glad that you care about nature..as I do...and I do not believe in dumping meds..even otc meds into garbage or toilet...as this goes into the environment..poisons nature..water system...and back into food sources as well...and back into us...
The home hospice nurse per protocol..destroys all left over meds...and needs a witness that it has been done..so it was done in front of me...I am familiar with the pills..and they have markings..and it came straight out of the bottle..she thought she was doing something good for me...but it was not good to do..this is my point...why would I take photos etc.? I suppose In her mind that particular pill was insignificant...but to me...it was a substance I didn't want inside me...so alright..ok..I will say it was Tylenol...
Please do your own research. Stop relying on me to provide all the answers for you. You can go to the book and there is plenty of proof/resources provided there.
How can it be proven if it hasn't gone to trial.
Please show Panzer's proof--statics from a reputable source would be helpful. You are quoting from a book written by the web-site's owner. That is self-referential. Do you have any training in evaluation of sources or statics?
The Congressmen know this, but it's like the old story of the Emperor with no clothes: nobody dares to speak the truth about the matter publicly. They hope that the "obvious goes unseen" by the public. They know it and they are glad for it. They know that the large number of lives ended will help reduce expenditures for Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and other services to the elderly and disabled."
-Ron Panzer, "Stealth Euthanasia; Health Care Tyranny in America"
Subtitle - "The Government Loves Hospice"
That's right and Mr.Harris has never and will never be charged with murder, even though it has been proven that they did murder some. He will only be charged with the fraud crimes he committed. They don't care about the weak and vulnerable. After all "they were going to die anyway".
A charge of fraud, which certainly included not putting the patients' care first, which has not yet come to trial, seems flimsy evidence to damn an entire medical and nursing practice.
It sure seems curious to me that law enforcement hasn't caught on to this epidemic of "murder" yet.
And btw..my brothers home hospice nurse..right after he was OD handed me some Lorazepam pills..in case I needed them..I did not report her..but I disposed of them..I know their effects..side affects..and know how dangerous they can be..and from an SNP analysis..know I can't properly metabolize them..same with my brother..besides being illegal for someone not a doctor to give someone meds who is not a doctor..and one never knows potential side affects...but..for the most part..all the home hospice nurses were very attentive to him..including the one who OD him..per the Nurse practicioners drug dosage instructions...not her own decision... with his best interest at heart..with only a few..who were clueless..
Up to 30% of Americans believe airplanes are spraying "chemtrails" to make people sick or control people's minds.
There is even a growing movement of people that believe the earth is flat.
So I'm not really surprised at the all-out conspiracy-oriented paranoia some people experience around hospice care.
Some people are so determined to find human fault, that they don't want to understand the science behind the process of death, or the science of how medications may ease the symptoms of dying. They just want to stick their fingers in their ears and continue to believe what they want to believe.
Such a pity.
"I asked the question because my brother accused me of putting dad in hospice and letting the staff over medicate him so he would die quicker. I then did a little research on that subject on the internet and found that some people believe that like he does. I am a member of this group so where better for me to get input of all kinds on this subject. It has informed and enlightened me as I read the responses. When I want an answer to something I ask. That is all it was.. a question. No blame, nothing. The staff treated dad like he was their own. For that I will be eternally grateful. I was his only caregiver for 4 yrs and finally I had someone to share the load with me and they did. Overall, the experience was very peaceful for me and hopefully for my dad too. I have informed my son that hospice is where I want to be when my time to leave this earth nears."
That is exactly what they did. I'm so sorry. This is horrifying that they can do this and get away with it!
Please visit the Hospice Patients Alliance website for help, and look at my profile for other resources.
Was this in the hospital? I posted my mom who was on Hospice in the hospital, GI doc "visited" and billed insurance, even though she no longer was using a feeding tube. This can (and sometimes does) happen.
Please, please note that when a person is on the dying journey that their organs start to shut down. It would be extremely painful to give someone food as it would just sit in the stomach as the stomach isn't digesting... and liquid will sit in the kidneys.
There are other options besides hospice. Such as home health, which also provides pain management, and as far as I know, they do not kill.
When hospice sedates someone, thereby, denying them access to food and water, it is euthanasia.
The person I saw this done to was not having any pain that constituted sedation.
She was not having pain from dying. Her pain was from a broken arm.
The fact that she was being kept sedated because of pain from her broken arm was not hid from us.
She died seven days later of dehydration. This is murder. And there are hundreds of other accounts, in hospice programs, all across the country, that are the same or similar.
I know hospice kills, and you will never convince me otherwise, with your verbatim, hospice damage control verbiage.
Some people feel Hospice made their love one die quickly, and usually those cases the family waited until the very last minute to call in Hospice. So, of course, the time table would already be toward the end of life.
You have a choice, you can watch a love one wither in pain without Hospice, or you can watch a love one be peacefully at sleep with no feeling of pain. Personally, I would take the latter. What would be your choice?
[I am not associated with any Hospice group nor never been. It is from knowledge I learned by asking questions of the Hospice group for my elderly parents, and from other information from expert groups such as the National Institute of Health, etc].
I'm not here to debate.
"Beware of the man who works hard to learn something, learns it, and finds himself no wiser than before.” by Albert Einstein