A few days ago Greg Diamond wrote an article about doctors who had “Advance Directives” concerning their healthcare; basically saying to not use any means possible to keep them alive. I decided to expand on his story because recently I sat with a patient and his family in his hospital room, waiting for the patient to “naturally” expire. In my opinion, the word natural seems a cruel choice — when it comes to Western Medicine’s idea how to allow a patient to die. Actually when it comes to dying in a hospital the patient has no choices. Its up to medical staff or rather they follow protocol, which was made up by someone else. The doctors and nurses only follow orders — doing anything different could land them in prison.
I have witnessed three patients die with so-called “dignity” but I don’t see where the word dignity can be used to describe the patient’s death experience at all — I did see, what I consider cruelty. That idea was driven home by what I witnessed the other day. This particular patient was dying of cancer related complications. In a nutshell — the treatment lowered his immune system so much, he got pneumonia.
The hospital’s protocol is to keep the patient “comfortable” using opiate drugs, like Morphine and Ativan, increasing the dosage until (in my opinion) they reach a lethal dose, but in the meantime the patient still experiences discomfort (to say the least) while experiencing hallucinations.
One of the patient’s relatives asked the attending nurse if the patient was in pain, and the response was ” he probably feels like he is drowning.” What! The feeling one is drowning is considered a compassionate option by the medical community? And to top it all off — the same nurse added an antibiotic to the patients drip bag. I don’t know about you, but that makes no sense to me. Exactly what do they expect an antibiotic will do for the dying patient? Are they just “padding” the final bill with over priced drugs and services before they send it off to the insurance company?
Another crazy thing the nurse said was “no” to the patient eating his favorite meal (chicken nuggets) claiming he could choke to death. This was before the patient was too drugged up to care about eating. At this point who cares if the patient chokes, the end result will be the same, whether he actually chokes or feels like he is drowning.
It all sounds incredibly cruel to me. We treat our pets with more dignity when it comes to dying than we do humans. So far only three states allow physician assisted suicide and California isn’t one of them. Our legislators brag how we Californians are so progressive — well, when it comes to end of life issues — we stink. The way it is now — if a patient is in the hospital for whatever reason, and things “go south,” the patient stays in bed until the end and the hospital staff determines the way the patient will die. The patient can sign a Do Not Resuscitate form but a lot goes on medically before that happens. The patient is not allowed to be released to go home because the hospital is liable for any problems that could come up with releasing a medically unstable patient. The relatives have no say in the matter, unless they get a court order and good luck with that at 2 o’clock in the morning.
Jack Kevorkian went to prison for doing what physicians should be doing all along. Euthanasia is a much better option for a patient that has no hope for survival and in my opinion, allows them to die with dignity. There is no dignity watching a patient gasp for air hours on end. I know there are thousands of patients in hospitals and hospice who go through this unnecessary pain daily.
I think its time we have an honest discussion about euthanasia on a national level. We need real choices about how we handle our own end of life medical care. Euthanasia should be an option for those who want it. The decision should be between the patient and their doctor, not Congress. I know physicians take an oath “to do no harm,” but from what I witnessed, patients struggling to breathe causes a great deal more harm not only for the patient but for family members who care for them.
“About Inge – I am a Stage 4 cancer SURVIVOR! wife, mom, activist, and animal lover, paddling my canoe down this fantastic river called life!”
Glad you are above room temp Inge and hoping that you have many, many more years floating down that river. I would say that I am “praying ” so – but that would likely offend you.
When you were at your lowest ebb with cancer would you have taken advantage of your suggestion here?
YES! and I accumulated a large stash of morphine, Vicodin, Adavan to do it myself if it came to that. My dad overdosed himself after his quality of life went south in 1986… he had cardiomyopathy and when he no longer could care for himself (shower, toilet, etc.) and was declared terminal he went out “his way”… no one questioned it and the death certificate read “cause of death heart failure”
Can I borrow a Vicodin, Inge? We’ve always been such good friends…
Vern, how does one “borrow” a Vicodin?
I’m picturing Vern as Wimpy: “I would gladly pay you Tuesday for a Vicodin today.”
The book “Final Exit” gives a good recipe for the do-it-yourselfer.
Take Inge’s stash, add good amount of vodka, and it’s lights out Louise.
For the fail safe method do all of the above and stick your head in a plastic bag, and wrap tape around your neck.
If you like to keep it simple, just close the garage door and start the car.
inhaling helium will also do the trick… if I chose that route, and I would be sure to crank call as many people with my helium voice as I could before croaking.
Not that I’m keen on helping people hone their technique, but I don’t think that’s so. Helium is lighter than air; it readily comes right out of your lungs and floats away. (Do not test this in case I’m wrong, but seriously, if killing yourself with helium was easy then kids’ birthday parties would be fields of carnage.)
The danger element among the lighter noble gases is Argon; you can find YouTube videos of people who have inhaled it; voice-wise, it’s the anti-helium. The problem with it is that, being heavier than air, it’s not going to vacate your lungs quite so easily.
(Garage door? Spoken like someone who doesn’t drive an electric car or hybrid!)
It’s odd how years ago there was plenty of discussion of suicide techniques (due to Derek Humphries, Jack Kevorkian, and others), but now it’s simply not so much discussed (except regarding guns.) I wonder if the collapse of the middle class has just made people more reluctant to suggest this sort of way out to others.
Greg… I researched this…helium does work…read this article…http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/06/05/self-help-talk-show-hosts-commit-suicide-by-inhaling-helium/
and be sure to read the comments…I have to admit that some were quite funny to me… maybe that’s because I learned to have sense of humor when it comes to death… 30% of the patients I visit do not survive … my favorite comment? “Life is a gas!” … make sure to tell people that after I croak some day.
But seriously assisted suicide should be available to those that want it. Its my body…my choice to the bitter end.
Quoting from your article:
Helium and a plastic bag over your head to prevent oxygen from reaching your lungs will kill you. In that scenario, the helium is just a gas that takes the place of air — presumably trying to fool your body into thinking that you’re not asphyxiating. (My understanding is that it wouldn’t work — which is why you’d need a sedative and a taped-on bag too.) But pure nitrogen would work as well as helium — and as soon as you got back to breathing oxygen, so long as it was before brain damage set in, you’d be fine.
Compare that to breathing carbon monoxide — that will actually kill you by preventing oxygen from getting to your brain by taking up the spaces that process it. Argon, by preventing oxygen from getting through your lungs (unless you cough it out), would kill you after a while even if, like carbon monoxide, you breathed a mixture of it and oxygen, by gunking up the lung-works much as how CO2 does the brain-works.
That’s how it was explained to me, anyway. No expertise asserted; no warranty offered.
“……no warranty offered.”
I don’t think Jack Kevorkian was ever sued. Not too many physicians that have killed patients can make that claim.
He’s always been a hero of mine.
Well, I’m not currently looking for patients.
I never took you for an ambulance chaser.
Thanks for the confirmation.
Oh — that’s looking for clients, not patients. That’s different! (Joke, for anyone thinking otherwise.)
What stopped you?
She wrote, “if it came to that.”
Try to pay attention.
“Officially,” of course, that doesn’t happen.
“At this point who cares if the patient chokes, the end result will be the same, whether he actually chokes or feels like he is drowning.”
Perhaps many with more than my TV-gleaned knowledge of both medicine and law would care quite a lot, and get to explain why in court. While there is no feasible recourse for the ‘drowning feeling”, the DISCRETIONARY action of placing a PATIENT UNDER CARE in a situation of possible choking hazard would seem to differ greatly . If that’s not an issue for you, I imagine a hospital has many convenient pillows? To bring a lighter mood to this dour topic, who can forget this classic clip?
Excellent – LOL!
I recall back in 1992 we had an initiative for assisted suicide on the ballot. Of course, the Catholic Church went batshit and started the usual hysterical campaign in opposition–“not enough protections!” they wailed. The idiot public bought in to the hysteria, and my personal choice was, again, withheld. Of course, if they were honest, they would have said that they just don’t want the rest of us to have a choice, and for them there would never be enough protections.
And still they retain their tax exempt status.