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| No. 80 | 
Nov 06, 2009, 06:15 AM
 Re: Dad Fights Hospital to Keep Baby on Life Support
So...what I got from the article was that he is not a candidate for weaning from the ventilator and therefore is not a candidate for a trach....seems odd to me...don't they have long term trachs in UK?
People take disabled children requiring continuous and total care on ventilators home in the USA. We teach them trach care and PEG tube care, and vent care, etc. The parents struggle but provide for the child. NO CHILD SHOULD LANGUISH IN A HOSPITAL IF THERE IS AN OPTION FOR CARE IN ANOTHER SETTING. Talk about a poor quality of life...geesh. Keeping the child in the hospital pretty much guarantees a poor quality of life.
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Nov 06, 2009, 11:38 AM
Re: Dad Fights Hospital to Keep Baby on Life Support Originally Posted by izeofblu1973  This is the great health care system? Why would a court be deciding (or doctors) to take baby off life support? A doctor would NEVER be able to decide in the U.S. even if they had no health insurance and couldnt pay the bill. If one parent wanted to keep the child on , they would be kept on. This is what happens when government runs things.
"this is the first time a court has gone against the wishes of a parent" Its a slippery slope! The flood gates are open!
George Bush, as governor of Texas, made it legal to take a person off of life support against the wishes of the family...if the family can't pay the bills to continue life support.
"Then at 2 p.m. today, a medical staffer at Texas Children's Hospital gently removed the breathing tube that had kept Sun Hudson alive since his Sept. 25 birth. Cradled by his mother, he took a few breaths, and died.
"Sun's death marks the first time a hospital has been allowed by a U.S. judge to discontinue an infant's life-sustaining care against a parent's wishes, according to bioethical experts. A similar case involving a 68-year-old man in a chronic vegetative state at another Houston hospital is before a court now. . . .
"Texas law allows hospitals [to] discontinue life sustaining care, even if patient family members disagree." http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...21.html?sub=AR | | No. 82 |
Nov 06, 2009, 05:36 PM
Re: Dad Fights Hospital to Keep Baby on Life Support
Wow! Such a sad existance for this little guy and his parents. The articles make it pretty clear he obviously is at the extreme of the continuem for the illness. While I am all for freedom of choice and have no problem with adults making these decisions for themselves and family...it's so hard with that little guy. I am on the fence.
Let's face it, he was one hour old when he was vented...if no solution was to be found then in my opinion its so sad this couldn't be done sooner. I can't imagine the heartbreak of looking at my 1 year old knowing what can never be, but holding onto what I have. Truly a Solomon's choice....
No one knows what they'd do in the same circumstance....I don't think I would've made it beyond the "there's no hope" speech....knowing what I do about society, medicine and the reality of care in the US.
As for the article with the woman whose child got the trach....again I have mixed feelings....while I understand we walk a slippery slope when we pick and choose....I also am concerned about all of the children who never would've been....who will care for them when their parents are gone? This is especially true of those who are "with it"....it worries me that like the "with it" elderly they will be locked away in facilities to wait for their expiration. Not a pretty future..and one their loving families who sacrificed all would not expect.
This is sad....I hope they can find peace in their decisions.
Maisy
| | No. 84 |
Nov 06, 2009, 09:34 PM
Re: Dad Fights Hospital to Keep Baby on Life Support Originally Posted by Vito Andolini Why do you continue to work in this area if it is so hard for you? I know it is hard but I wonder if maybe it might be time for a change for you personally? Not trying to tell you what to do, just thinking aloud.
So much of a person's view of sickness is based on one's religious views. Some religions view sickness as God's punishment, working out of one's karma from a previous life, God's will, whatever. Very, very hard to be totally objective when it comes to this topic. I do know that money and quality of life matter, but they are not the whole picture. I have no easy answers, either.
When the elderly in nursing homes keep falling and getting pneumonia and UTI's, the doctors start advocating for not treating them after the first bout or 2. That's what happened with my relative. Doc said let's not treat his UTI and just let him go. I fought that, as I know a UTI can sometimes cause horrible pain. But when the pneumonia came, his daughters decided to let him go. Doc convinced them that CO2 narcosis caused him to not feel the SOB or pain. I wonder.
Granted, his life was only about being completely bedridden, incontinent, dependent, falling, getting tied down, wiggling free, crawling naked on the floor after falling OOB. Oh, it was a terrible scene. Terrible and repeated several times. It was decided to let the bacteria win. Mixed feelings about it on my part.
My grandmother was an extremely hard working, doing for herself little woman. Survived her husband by nearly 20yrs. She rehab.'d well after a broken hip...living several more years, into her 90's great cog function...She stayed with my parents, prior to entering a nursing home. When I'd stop in, to assist her with her care, she was just so upset that she needed more and more assistance. When she entered her last bout of CHF, the home called my dad, saying that could be taken to hsp..Joint decision was to just "let her go". She died that day. Death with dignity is not such a bad thing
| | No. 87 |
Nov 07, 2009, 11:26 AM
Re: Dad Fights Hospital to Keep Baby on Life Support Originally Posted by HeartsOpenWide Are you in favor of a national health care plan? If so, what do you think is going to happen when the GOVERNMENT is footing the bill?
Why is it that you say this...is there an overriding practice of "pulling the plug" in the VA system, or in medicare currently? My patient with Humana insurance can't get a lidocaine patch for her pain, my patient with medicare can. I have had my private insurance refuse to pay for tests, for surgery, for dressing supplies, for medications, for home health services, for ostomy supplies...etc. Currently, the rationing of care, and the decisions to stop or refuse care is happening in the private insurance world. Why is it that you are more afraid of what MIGHT happen than you are of what IS happening?
| | No. 88 |
Nov 07, 2009, 06:00 PM
Re: Dad Fights Hospital to Keep Baby on Life Support Originally Posted by Phread01 George Bush, as governor of Texas, made it legal to take a person off of life support against the wishes of the family...if the family can't pay the bills to continue life support.
"Then at 2 p.m. today, a medical staffer at Texas Children's Hospital gently removed the breathing tube that had kept Sun Hudson alive since his Sept. 25 birth. Cradled by his mother, he took a few breaths, and died.
"Sun's death marks the first time a hospital has been allowed by a U.S. judge to discontinue an infant's life-sustaining care against a parent's wishes, according to bioethical experts. A similar case involving a 68-year-old man in a chronic vegetative state at another Houston hospital is before a court now. . . .
"Texas law allows hospitals [to] discontinue life sustaining care, even if patient family members disagree." http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...21.html?sub=AR
And you know what, I totally agree with this law. Far too often, patients are being kept alive despite their lack of a quality of life. Just because your loved one is lying in bed in a vegetative state with a tube coming out of every orifice doesn't it make it living. It's cruel. People need to stop being afraid of death. It's going to happen to all of us one day. Learn to accept that. Sometimes dying is more dignifying than having five pressure ulcers and needing someone to wipe your butt.
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