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.
Thank you so much again. I'm glad to have connected with you as well. A year ago on this date, 26th, mom was transferred from the hospital to the first of 3 NHs for rehab after a hospital stay. I'm glad you had the support system in place to help you. Take care of yourself.
I'm finally to the point that I remember mostly the happier times, and not those last couple of the difficult years, when they both were so I'll, and everything was about their failing health.
Remember, she wouldn't want you to be hurting so! You take care now!
I have a lot to deal with and I am sure that eventually get past all of the emotions.
Unfortunately, animals have much louder Advocates for inhumane treatment against them (although they’re not human). Why is the abuse of animals a much more sensitive issue in America, and more important then inhuman, treatment of real human beings. Specifically the Terminal, the Sick and the Elderly?
These groups of people are targeted and funneled into Hospice (the silent killer) to cut Medicare cost.
The public has a right to know the truth about the (silent) practices used by the Hospice Organizations working in and through, our Hospitals, and Nursing Homes working in conjunction with Medicare.
Medicare’s sole agenda is to cut cost by any means necessary. Medicare’s idea of cutting cost is referring your love ones (the elderly, the terminal, and sick) to Hospice. Where the patient supply of medication is cut off. All except the morphine/methadone used to administer a quiet, rapid exit into eternity (someone is saving on their water bill as well because they are dehydrating their patients and not turning to the I.V drip).
Medicare’s idea of cutting cost is to withhold administering medication to the feeble (including blood thinners which prevent blood clotting for non mobile patients), diabetes medication is withheld, cholesterol, and high blood pressure meds are withheld too.
This is Medicare’s idea of cutting cost – writing addictive prescriptions, over medicate you, and then abruptly drop you from the excessive synthetic drugs; they hooked your body on. Then down the line tell you, they can not longer do anything else for you. By now your visits to the emergency room and hospital are so frequent (from the side effects of lifetime synthetic drugs) you know the staff including security. Occasionally you may get a nurse who will actually sympathize with you.
Written by-
Ron Panzer (President of Hospice Patient Alliance)
You do want a humane end, like animals get? You don't want a humane end, you want your loved one dying without benefit of pain relief or anxiolytics? It's so hard to know what you do want!
You feel that strongly that the medical pharmaceutical and palliative care sectors are evil leeches, here's another idea. Do without them, then. Good luck.
I'm so sorry for your loss.
I have visited your Hospice Patient Alliance Website and am very impressed by the information that is shared there. It must have taken many hours of research for dedicated volunteers to assemble.
The opening statement on the purpose of hospice and the aims of care are totally in alliance with my own strongly held views.
However there is so much information that I do not have the many hours required to read it that I was only able to skim some of the articles.
As I have previously written there is a great deal of difference between hospices that are not for profit who must abide by Medicare/ Medicaid rules if they are to receive funding from those entities and for profit hospices who rely on private pay so a bed is better not occupied by a Medicare/Medicaid patient. Medicare /medicaid pays a hospice a daily amount which is often not sufficient to pay for the patient's needs. Not for profits have to raise money and often receive grants from such organizations as The United Way to continue to operate. Their rates of pay for all staff is way below what those individuals could earn in a hospital setting. There is mythe that RNs go to work for for Hospice when they are not good for anything else. An absolute untruth. The nurses I worked with were highly trained individuals following a specific calling where they felt they could do the most good. Many nurses in hospitals these days have to work 12 hour shifts and end up totally exhausted not able to give of their best and prone to mistakes.
Cutting costs is not just something Medicare tries to do it is a rampant practice throughout the health care industry and it not driven by greedy Drs who are mostly employees and receive a salary like everyone else and don't get to charge the fees seen on hospital bills.
Hospitals cut corners just like every other large organization these days by reducing quality which means nurses have too many patients to care for, and the kitchen uses a lot of processed food such as dried eggs and potato powder.
The healthcare industy is run by accountants whose only interest is making the greatest profit and many patients especially the elderly suffer by this practice.
It is not hospices that are promoting the early demise of our elderly loved ones it is the whole system that denies proper care and maintenance to our vulnerable people long before they become hospice eligeable.
Yes I agree the welfare system is full of abusers but on the other hand many people who are severly disabled have to wait many years to obtain disability and face many years on waiting lists for affordable houseing or even in my area waiting lists before they can get on a waiting list.
The purpose behind your organization seems to be to protect unsuspecting people mosty the elderly as they have the highest death rate is extremely laudable but the problems go deeper than hospice abuse which I don't deny does exist. However on this forum we most frequently hear of relative abuse not usually by the caretaker but by circling vulture relatives.
On the subject of assisted suicide I have an open mind as there is such potential for abuse however if my life became unbearable I would like to have that choice. I do not feel we have the right to judge others that is only up to God.
Please continue with the work you are doing it is very valuable but I also think it is very important not to frighten people away from the benefits of good hospice care. No is a very powerful word and patients and family must be encouraged to use it when they feel uncomfortable with anything medical that is being done however persuasive the healthcare provider can be.
No Way, I know, I've been there, day after day, watching my own Dear Mother suffer, she needed those drugs to help her with the Severe Pain, and if it took snowing her into Oblivion, I choose Oblivion! Just as she Chose Oblivion! I Loved her with all of my heart, just as my 5 Siblings also did, and Thank God, we were all on the same page, as we did not want to see her Suffer. Bring on those Narcotics, say your Goodbyes and even everything else you wish to say, because sadly, there are only a few states in the country that honor Death With Dignity, and until more states enact these sorts of laws, Hospice, and the Angels that run those organizations, are the only hope we have in giving our Loved ones the pain relief and a dignified death, to the best of their abilities!
Did I want to lose my Mom? NO, did I want to see her suffer? H*LL NO!
Unfortunately, there is only one course of action, and if you are proactive, speak with the Hospice Dr's, Coordinators, and the Nurses, find out exactly what the prognosis is, and what the best options are, to give your LO the best and most peaceful and most comfortable death. I choose Hospice, but you do not have to choose this route either.
It's Sad, It is Sad, all of it, losing someone who you are not ready to lose, horrible, but as adults, you have to let them go, end of, Period, as it's not fair to prolong a life, only for your own selfish longings.
I miss my Mom, everyday, every minute, and now my family is currently faced with another family member on Hospice, and he's only in his 40's, has 3 daughter's, 21, 13, and 12, who are facing the loss of their father, his wife, has been grieving his passing for over 2 years now, as he's been through clinical trial, after clinical trial. It is near the end for him, the family is a wreck, my poor Niece, my heart breaks for her right now, her trying to hold it all together for her children.
Thankfully in the state of Washington, they have passed the Death With Dignity laws, and he has chosen this route, to end the suffering, his own, and that of his family. Hospice is struggling to manage his pain and the other dreadful side affects of the 2 types of Cancer that is killing him, ever so slowly. His decision is his own, a very personal decision, and a dificult one, but his time left, dealing with his own pain, and then having to watch his children suffer emotionally right along side is Too, Too much!
I respect his decision, and pray that this families suffering ends soon, so that they can all get on to the healing and processing of the grief and loss. He's ready, he wants this all to end, it's a huge sacrifice he's making, but he is close to death either way, but this way, he is in control of his own destiny, and I believe it's the right thing to do In This Case. As every case is different. We as a family, are all supporting his decision. Still, it's very sad. Please pray for my family in this difficult time? Thank you.
People will die on the same time table whether they use Hospice or not.
Without Hospice that patient is in terrible pain as it is not pleasant when the body starts to shut down. With Hospice, again note same time table, the patient is more relax, more comfortable, etc. If it were me, please let me have Hospice.
I have seen many comments stating that the hospice wouldn't rush death, because they would lose money. Someone even stated they get paid by Medicare on a daily basis. Not true.
There is a cap on the Medicare hospice benifit. It's right in the Medicare guidelines. You can look it up. It's around $27,000 and some. You think, "oh that would go a long way". No, they can drain that in anywhere from two weeks to two days, by fraudulently billing Medicare for services they have not provided.
Look up the recent story about the Texas hospice boss who was texting execution orders to nurses. It talks about the cap. Also you can see by that story how hospice works. I hate to say all, but I believe the majority of them kill. I would not trust one.
There are being cuts applied to hospice payments by Medicare/ Medicaid currently in progress.
The use of narcotics at the end of life to provide comfort and pain relief may have the effect of shortening life. This is an inevitable side effect. As others have said do you want your loved one to live longer in agony. Many medications some of which are life preserving have side effects that are unpleasant and unwanted such as chemotherapy - who wants that?
Do Drs deliberately or by neglect kill patients? No one can answer that it is between the Dr and his conscience. The hospice owner was not a Dr so his instructions to the nurses were definitely illegal and the relatives whose loved ones died because of his orders will be glad when he receives his punishment in a court of law. Little comfort to them but at least he can never do it again.
There was a study published in the journal of Pain and Symptom Management that hospice patients live on average 29 days longer than those with similar symptoms that were not receiving hospice care.
There are numerous postings on the internet from professional organizations and private individuals for and against hospice care.
As I have said before caregivers must educate themselves before their loved ones reach the stage where hospice may be appropriate.
When someone says the nurse gave it anyway the option is to call the police if that is the only way to stop it. If you don't agree with a Dr find another one but don't be surprised if you get the same advice and recommendations.
End of life care is not a game of Russian roulette it, is the use of carefully considered options which at times will be wrong - there is no doubt about that. I once took a phone call from young woman who had just visited her dying sister who had just given birth to a baby. She was dying from kidney failure and there was no dialysis fifty years ago. She begged me to give whatever I was allowed to keep her sister unaware. She was greatly relieved when I told her that I had the syringe of heroin in my hand and was about to give it. Yes we used heroin in the UK in those days for severe pain.
"Another Norvus employee told agents that in late 2013, Harris sent a text message asking the worker to “administer an overdose of medication to a hospice patient … by increasing the patient’s medication dosage to approximately four times the maximum allowed.”
The employee did not comply with the request because it would have killed the patient, the FBI said."
Surely the key point here is the last sentence. The employee REFUSED to overdose the patient. Refused, moreover, in spite of the pressure one can imagine coming from such a deranged director.
People are being robbed of the last years, months, weeks, days, hours of their lives. No person has a right to steal that from them!
As more proof that hospice is euthanasia, it would enlighten the public greatly to do some research on Florence Wald, the founder of the first hospice in the United states. She was a pro euthanasia advocate. Of course, if a hospice is founded by a nurse who believes in euthanasia, what do you they are going to be doing to relieve the patients' suffering? You guessed it! According to the death culture that has taken over the person is suffering from their life. End the life, end the suffering.
Also the word "euthanasia" comes from the Greek and means "good death". Its this one of hospice's favorite phrases.
For all of you pro euthanasia propionates. Most of you talk like it is the patients choice. Many of you are deceived. Most of the time the patient is not even told what is being done.
My grandma was killed by her doctor. Yes, it is happening outside of hospice as well. Doctor and hospitals are doing it. He suddenly stopped her fluid pill she had been on for years. I won't go into detail. But he killed her purposely by stopping a necessary treatment. This way to euthanasia and discussed on pro euthanasia websites, as well as, withholding food and water and sedated. Which is hospice's main way of killing. Also called the "Third Way".
Also look up the hospice in America timeline.
The "Euthanasia Society of America" was formed in 1938. Its purpose was to get euthanasia legalized in America.
The first American hospice was founded by PRO EUTHANASIA nurse, Florence Wald in 1974.
The "National Hospice Organization" was formed in 1978.
Down through the years, "Euthanasia Society of America" Merged with other "right to die" organizations and entities.
By 2004 "National Hospice Organization (Now called "National Hospice & Palliative Care Organization") merged with the "Euthanasia Society of America" (Then called "Last Acts Partnership"), and became the successor organization to it and all of its predecessors.
The "National Hospice & Palliative Care Organization" IS the "Euthanasia Society of America"!
Timeline:
http://www.hospicepatients.org/euthanasia-soc-of-america-to-natl-hosp-and-palliative-care-org.pdf
Another thing you need to take away form this story: Hospice is a business. Its goal like many businesses is to keep costs low and make money. You see how the CEO of this business was calling the shots? He has no medical training or degree and he is the boss. That's how it works. Also note the cap.
Making money? On average Hospice gets $150 per day from Medicare for each patient. That $150 also has to cover the cost of the rental of the hospital bed, rental of oxygen tanks, and a long list of medical supplies.
Oh, let's not forget the payroll for the Board-Certified palliative medicine Physicians.... the Hospice trained RN's.... the Hospice trained Aides,.... the Clinical Social Worker for the patient..... the interfaith Chaplain..... the Bereavement Coordinator, etc. that commute to where ever the patient may be, at all hours of the day, in all kinds of weather.
By the way, morphine is a Controlled Substance.
2 It came even to pass on the third day, that, behold, a man came out of the camp from Saul with his clothes rent, and earth upon his head: and so it was, when he came to David, that he fell to the earth, and did obeisance.
3 And David said unto him, From whence comest thou? And he said unto him, Out of the camp of Israel am I escaped.
4 And David said unto him, How went the matter? I pray thee, tell me. And he answered, That the people are fled from the battle, and many of the people also are fallen and dead; and Saul and Jonathan his son are dead also.
5 And David said unto the young man that told him, How knowest thou that Saul and Jonathan his son be dead?
6 And the young man that told him said, As I happened by chance upon mount Gilboa, behold, Saul leaned upon his spear; and, lo, the chariots and horsemen followed hard after him.
7 And when he looked behind him, he saw me, and called unto me. And I answered, Here am I.
8 And he said unto me, Who art thou? And I answered him, I am an Amalekite.
9 He said unto me again, Stand, I pray thee, upon me, and slay me: for anguish is come upon me, because my life is yet whole in me.
10 So I stood upon him, and slew him, because I was sure that he could not live after that he was fallen: and I took the crown that was upon his head, and the bracelet that was on his arm, and have brought them hither unto my lord.
11 Then David took hold on his clothes, and rent them; and likewise all the men that were with him:
12 And they mourned, and wept, and fasted until even, for Saul, and for Jonathan his son, and for the people of the LORD, and for the house of Israel; because they were fallen by the sword.
13 And David said unto the young man that told him, Whence art thou? And he answered, I am the son of a stranger, an Amalekite.
14 And David said unto him, How wast thou not afraid to stretch forth thine hand to destroy the LORD'S anointed?
15 And David called one of the young men, and said, Go near, and fall upon him. And he smote him that he died.
16 And David said unto him, Thy blood be upon thy head; for thy mouth hath testified against thee, saying, I have slain the LORD'S anointed.
So called mercy killing in the Bible.
I've seen it, and observed one who chose to end his own life with grace and dignity, utilizing his option of Death With Dignity. A very brave thing to do.
No, a sad and painful death, I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy, but it happens, a lot! And thank God we have the wonderful option of Hospice Care, to help in the aid of comfort for our Loved ones, and now even Death with Dignity, in some states.
When your body is broke down, and death is in sight, please, take the option of Hospice Care. They are not hastening your death, they are a saving grace, helping you to live out your days with as much comfort as is possible. And they definitely don't set out to kill you or shorten your life!
If you would rather, do not choose Hospice, tough it out of on your own, but it won't be pretty. It will be Awful, difficult, and painful, and you can't pray that away.
Please check out the New International Version (NIV) of the Bible. It is in modern day language and is so much easier to understand than the King James version.
I would like to dissect the verses you printed from your Bible and get to the meaning of the story. The man who came to David was probably not who he said he was, an Amalekite from King Saul's camp. Since he had Saul's crown with him, an item that the Philistines would not have left in the battlefield, we can assume that the Philistine's hadn't arrived yet and that he was a scavenger, pilfering the battlefield for treasure AFTER Saul had been killed. (See 1 Samuel 31:3-4)
Since the Amalekites had been in battle with the Israelites since the time of Moses, and David had just destroyed a group of them who had burned his city and kidnapped the women and children (1 Samuel 30:1-20), obviously this man was unaware of David's hatred of them. He thought he would be pleasing David to tell him of Saul's death but his lie wound up costing him his life.
What I am trying to get across is that, because the man was lying, and he did not kill Saul, you can not use this story to show "mercy killing". The man never committed Saul's murder to ease his anticipated (perceived) pain of dying at the hand of the enemy.
I am not saying that, in history, mercy killings have never happened. I'm just saying, in this instance, that it wasn't the case.
You have every right not to opt for hospice care for a dying loved one. As a hospice nurse, I have seen people in extreme pain at the end of their life. If you can live with denying them pain medicine and can put up with their moaning, screaming, gasping, writhing, etc., until the good Lord takes them, then you are a tougher cookie than I am. I wonder if that's what your family member would want.
Your brother is - and I'm sorry to be this blunt but you seem very matter-of-fact yourself so I hope you'll forgive me - dying of renal failure. There comes a point in kidney disease where dialysis, which is uncomfortable and risky in itself, is not enough to keep the patient going. So there is no point in continuing it, because it will not allow him to recover and improve, but only prolong his severe suffering.
Your brother and sister in law are both fortunate that you are a sensitive person, able to recognise that acting rashly in this difficult situation might end up making things worse for them to no purpose. Many people in your shoes would kick up a fuss whatever the consequences of it. Well done to you that you genuinely are putting your brother's and SIL's peace of mind first.
You are in a very challenging position. You are correct that it is professionally (never mind anything else) inappropriate for your nephew to be administering treatment to his father, unless this has also been agreed by the patient, his doctor and the hospice team. Whereas it sounds as though nephew is muscling in and making it hard for the hospice nurse to challenge him without upsetting the patient.
As a side issue: be careful how you judge your nephew. People who say what he said, and perhaps felt what he felt when he said that, often experience terrible guilt and shame about it later on when what they "wished for" is coming true. It seems more likely that his feelings towards his father are extremely complicated: if he truly, simply hated him it would be easier and more final to stay away and deny him any chance of leave-taking. Anyway.
In your position, I think if I could I would call the GP and report my concerns. The GP may be able to liaise with hospice to ensure that only authorised staff have any hands-on involvement in nursing or medical care. If you decide to try this, keep strictly to the facts; and if you must comment on your nephew say only that he is too emotionally involved to give appropriate care. Good luck, and please let us know how you and your family are getting on.