Kirra wrote:
Wow, I agree RD, that was not ethical at all. That Doc made a decision that was not his to make.
Aethien, Living Will may be ok thing, but in my experience..you can have whatever Advanced Directive you want, it doesn't matter. Your family has the ultimate decision as to whether you will be resusitated or not. So, better to make sure you have someone who will follow through on your wishes than hoping that a piece of paper will ensure that. I have seen family unable to make the decision in the midst of chaos, even knowing the wishes of the patient, and keeping them a full code. So, we do CPR, break Grandma's ribs in the process, stick a tube down her throat, put in lines, in the process give her a pneumothorax..and she is 95 and wanted to have no heroic measures. I understand it is a hard thing to do, but people need to think of it as fulfilling someones final wishes.
The hospital I work at is trialing something called "Family Presence." Normally in a critical situation family is asked to leave, but now we are offering a choice. Stay or leave. Some different decisions have been made during the moment, when families see what happens during CPR. I am not sure how this is going to work, I can see positive and negative. Some people are not able to handle it, and you would need an extra person to be with the family, but then I have heard that some family members like to be present, just for the shear fact that they are there at the moment of passing. I dunno..
I guess, back to the original thought of the thread, what I don't like is people saying that using Morphine to ease a person's passing is "killing them". Its these comments that make people second guess themselves when they need to make the decision. Allowing someone to pass in peace is something that is so much better than the pain the body can still be going through right up till the end. Morphine drips are not ordered lightly, so it's not something that you can request if not appropriate.
Sorry, I wandered away from this thread. Yeah, you're right. You have to have some spine to be able to follow up. I will admit to deciding to give my mom one more chance; she clenched her mouth and refused to take a feeding tube, and then started making a recovery on her own. It was almost as if she figured out that someone was there who cared enough to want to keep her alive, so she decided to stick around.
This may or may not be relevant to the morphine drip discussion.
LadyKate wrote:
Aethien wrote:
LK - You should look into a living will, if you feel that strongly about it. Otherwise, it could be out of your hands if it comes to that.
I have this crazy fear that the day I make out my will, living or otherwise is the day that I die or something.
Heh, can't help you there.
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