I read this story on Yahoo news today and when I first saw the headline I thought the guy was a psycho. But it turns out the murders were actually mercy killings.
Would you help a terminally ill patient die, especially if you felt no one would ever find out what you did? I remember that when this issue came up in medical ethics there was a heated debate about whether it should be more morally acceptable to watch terminally ill patients suffer than to help them end their misery sooner.
I'm curious to know everyone's thoughts about this.
"Our discussion was however if we should begin letting families stay in the room during the code"
I happen to love this idea. I don't think that alot of laypeople realize what goes on in a code. While it might make us a little uncomfortable the education of a family is worth it. I have seen too many patients in horrible conditions, no quality of life, skin broken down beyond belief, on vents, tube feedings, MRSA/VRE and we are coding them over and over again while the family sits down the hall. Its just cruel!
"Our discussion was however if we should begin letting families stay in the room during the code"
I happen to love this idea. I don't think that alot of laypeople realize what goes on in a code. While it might make us a little uncomfortable the education of a family is worth it. I have seen too many patients in horrible conditions, no quality of life, skin broken down beyond belief, on vents, tube feedings, MRSA/VRE and we are coding them over and over again while the family sits down the hall. Its just cruel!
as the saying goes. I am just a trifle reluctant due to the reasons I mentioned but I also feel somewhere deep down that maybe if the family is there and we behave professionally this would also be more appropriate at such a time.
"Male nurse kills 40 patients...what do you think? Post #1
I read this story on Yahoo news today and when I first saw the headline I thought the guy was a psycho. But it turns out the murders were actually mercy killings.
Would you help a terminally ill patient die, especially if you felt no one would ever find out what you did? I remember that when this issue came up in medical ethics there was a heated debate about whether it should be more morally acceptable to watch terminally ill patients suffer than to help them end their misery sooner.
I'm curious to know everyone's thoughts about this."
First of all this Nurse chose to make a call which was not one for him to make. As far as mercy killings go, who decided it was mercy killings... This is a series of killings and following the investigation and trial an outcome will be had. Hopefully the right and just decision that the people of that state agree with.
In terms of the second part to the question about would I help a patient die under circumstance that were illegal if I thought no one would ever find out. NO! That is not my calling. I believe there may be place in time for acceptable euthanasia practises but those will likely be the domain of the patient, family and treating doctors.
A comment about whether he was "psycho" or not, that may in time come to be known. Certainly there is not enough info available to make a judgement on that as yet.
this is sort of off topic but why did the press find it necessary to put MALE nurse in the headlines as thoughit had some bearing on why he committed the murders? Seems unecessary and deliberately inflammatory to me..... or aybe i'm just in a nasty mood:o
I agree with you on this one. I have been frustrated with the label Male Nurse and this just adds to my list of reasons to not like it. If the culprit had been a female we would never have seen "... female Nurse kills ...." But we move on!
I heard about it on NPR this morning and could swear they said "male nurse" too, shame on them!
As for euthanasia, well, all I have to say is that for now it is ILLEGAL and perhaps Mr. Cullen could have used other channels to advocate for the rights of those who are suffering slow deaths in ICU. I don't believe his actions are really helping his movement, whether you believe in it or not.
That said, if *I'm* ever dying in your ICU I hereby BEG you not to d/c or reduce my morphine on account of the respirations! I'd like to be totally snowed when I leave this earth, thank you very much :)
Specializes in FNP, Peds, Epilepsy, Mgt., Occ. Ed.
I've done some reading on other cases of nurses killing patients. While they often put it in terms of "mercy killing," in every case I've read the act had a lot more to do with them than with the patient. These people usually are not acting out of the patient's best interests, but out of their own needs.
I firmly believe that it is not our place nor our right to make this decision. I think those who *do* make this decision are acting out of their needs, not out of empathy or pity for the patient. That may be their rationalization, but I don't believe it.
I didn't mean anything bad about hospice, i think it's not used enough, i wasn't critisizing your post or anything. I agree with ... well it was someone ... that said communication is a lost art, and md's seem to give those false hopes. People lie dying uncomfortably when hospice could be easing the process of dying. that's all ... i think that's what i meant ... people just don't know hospice is there ... *shrug*
please excuse the grammar, to lazy to fix at this time
I don't work with adults so it is fair to say I have no qualified opinion to give. However I could never assist someone in killing themselves. DNR.. fine.. but no help in killing oneself. Goes against everything I believe Nursing to be. I work in a neonatal ICU so no Patient has ever asked this of me. Off subject however, the worst thing for me to deal with is parents who want everything done for their 23 weeker. Occasionally a Doc will do it and the results can be very difficult to see. A 12 y/o CP'er with a GT who has never walked or talked or eaten a meal. But I have seen a true 23 weeker go home and show up at a reunion as a perfectly normal 5 y/o.
i really feel for pt's dying especially when it's long and lingering and when there appears to be litlle mercy. Whenever that pain medicine is due, i'm always on top of it but until it becomes legal in the state of pa i plan on abiding by my state board of nursing.
how freaky, this guy was too close to home for me, thank god he never worked in pgh.
This whole subject is very difficult for me. About 10 years ago, my nana was in the end stages of cancer that had metastisized (sp?)into her spine. She was in horrible pain and it lasted for several months. I found out a few months after she passed away that she had asked my mother to give her enough medication to end her life (she was incapable of physically doing it herself). My mother struggled with it for days, deciding in the end that although she couldn't stand to see her mother in that kind of pain, she also couldn't be responsible for ultimately ending her life. I know that if my nana had foreseen the pain she would be in, she would have ended it months before it became so debilitating.
This topic is so personal and subjective, as in cases of abortion, religion, and politics. I just know from my personal experience that it was terrible to watch my nana suffer so much. I can close my eyes and still remember back to seeing her eyes follow me around the room, begging me to help relieve her pain. Near the end, she was on so much morphine or various other painkillers, she was barely cognitive. She didn't recognize us most of the time, couldn't talk, and could do nothing for herself. For my nana, that was hell. And I think I would feel the same way. I remember watching an episode of this show with two plastic surgeons. One of the surgeons was having an affair with a woman who had aggressive, terminal breast cancer. She ended up taking her own life before the disease got too advanced. I understood why this young, attractive woman who appeared healthy did what she did. When you know that nothing in the medical world is going to help you, what's left? Having your family watch you suffer? Being in so much pain that no amount of medication will help relieve it?
Obviously, I will keep my opinions to myself in the professional world. Once I become a nurse, I'm sure I will struggle with day to day situations that require my ability to think and act professionally without bringing my own values and beliefs into the equation. What this nurse did was wrong, period. He may have thought he was helping these patients, but it was not his choice to make. If any of these patients wanted to end their life, they should have asked their family members or taken it upon themselves (if able). He does not have that authority, just as my mother felt she didn't have the authority to end my nana's life.
Seems unecessary and deliberately inflammatory to me..... or aybe i'm just in a nasty mood:o
i think that's what i meant ... people just don't know hospice is there ... *shrug* 
lsyorke, RN
710 Posts
"Our discussion was however if we should begin letting families stay in the room during the code"
I happen to love this idea. I don't think that alot of laypeople realize what goes on in a code. While it might make us a little uncomfortable the education of a family is worth it. I have seen too many patients in horrible conditions, no quality of life, skin broken down beyond belief, on vents, tube feedings, MRSA/VRE and we are coding them over and over again while the family sits down the hall. Its just cruel!