HYANNIS - Eunice Kennedy Shriver remains in critical condition today at Cape Cod Hospital.
Shriver, the 88-year-old sister of Sen. Edward Kennedy, has been in the intensive care unit of the hospital for about a week. Her family, including California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the husband of Shriver's daughter, Maria, is among those who traveled to the Cape to be with her.
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There are no updates on Shriver's condition, according to a Special Olympics spokeswoman. She was last said to be in "critical but stable condition".
Shriver was admitted to the hospital after suffering a series of strokes, the Associated Press reported early this morning. The Special Olympics spokeswoman would not confirm that report.
If this were any 'regular' 88 year old woman on Cape Cod, she would already have been sent to a local SNF to die..not kept in the ICU. I am truly sorry for the Kennedy family, but this is just one example of how health care is being rationed already. It'll get even worse if Obama's plan goes through.
What are you talking about? Do you actually work in healthcare? There are plenty of "regular" patients 88+ receiving medicare who are in the ICU!
I just really have a hard time believing you have any experience working with patients.
A bit harsh, dont you think, I too have been a nurse for over 20 years, most of them in geriatrics (both hosp based and SNF/ALF) and have seen the hospitals discharging pts to die in the nsg home. The regular pt 88+ you are referring to obviously are treatable and not on their death bed as was Mrs. Shriver.
We recently had a big fight over this issue as our Medical Director argued with the ER not to send the pt back as his condition was unstable and we lacked the proper staffing to handle it etc. The ER agreed to keep him over night but left him on a gurney in the hall in less than comfortable conditions, in the morning the wife cried to us to accept him and let him just die in comfort, which we did.
But lets face facts, Mrs. Shriver was obviously high profile and private pay and received treatment not as easily accessible to the average geriatric pt. If you are first learning that lesson today- well, then you were really born yesterday!!
A bit harsh, dont you think, I too have been a nurse for over 20 years, most of them in geriatrics (both hosp based and SNF/ALF) and have seen the hospitals discharging pts to die in the nsg home. The regular pt 88+ you are referring to obviously are treatable and not on their death bed as was Mrs. Shriver.
But lets face facts, Mrs. Shriver was obviously high profile and private pay and received treatment not as easily accessible to the average geriatric pt. If you are first learning that lesson today- well, then you were really born yesterday!!
Uhh No.
In FL (as well as other states...but FL is a prime offender) there are plenty of obviously NOT "TREATABLE" elderly that are put on vents and treated to the Nth degree, that do not have connections or private insurance, but do have family members that want everything done or MDs that do not "believe" in DNR orders.
Nothing like a completely confused dementia, contracted in fetal position metastatic pancreatic cancer pt, whose family requests the whipple and chemo, because they want everything done.
I would also say that it is the less connected pts on medicare that get more extreme measures and are actually more often stuck in the hospital longer. Often SNFs do not wish to take them, if their care will be expensive or difficult. The private pay pts tend to have more access to information, and data, with which to make more informed decisions and have MDs that respect their final care decisions and the lawyers to enforce their living wills.
Please note that Ted Kennedy chose to spend final days more at home, and live how he wished in his final days, rather than have a protracted fight to the Nth degree. I believe that he had all the connections of which you speak.
While I agree with the assessment that the poster that you cited was a bit harsh, the comment that they were "born yesterday" was equally harsh. To respond rudely, when complaining that someone was rude....well, "Pot, meet Kettle".
I worked on the psych consultation-liaison team at big teaching hospital several years ago, and we had a lot of clients we followed in the dialysis clinic (med management and supportive therapy for depression, and also we were called in for a competency eval whenever someone decided they wanted to stop their dialysis). I remember frequently seeing elderly people in persistant vegetative states, seriously contracted (but breathing independently, darn the luck!), being wheeled in on gurneys from nursing homes for their thrice-weekly kidney dialysis. Why?? Because somebody (the government) would pay for it, and somebody else was making money off it ... If we can continue to dialyze people in COMAS indefinitely, I wouldn't be too worried about the outlook for the elderly in this country regarding healthcare, regardless of what healthcare "reform" gets passed.
Frankly, personally, I'd rather see a lot less of that kind of "treatment" happening.
1. MY health care decisions are mine alone. Mine and my doctor and my insurance company. I trust either one of them far more than I do the government.
It seems to me that the government already runs most of the healthcare system in this country (Medicare and Medicaid.) This is why hospitals and nursing homes are so heavily regulated by the government.
I am with the Mermaid on this. It may be a function of our geography. In all areas of business, health, real estate, restaurants, hotels, we on the south shore of Boston, Cape Cod and the Islands see more than our fair share of celebrities. Most are very nice, but do get preferential treatment from the sycophant types. I work LTC just off Cape and we would have had Mrs. Shriver as a patient from the get go. BTW we have "universal health care" here in Massachusetts and that changes many health care decisions, I don't know of a hospital within a 50 mile radius from here that would have kept such a pt in ICU. She would have been shipped out ASAP. And in most of our local LTC/sub-acute facilities in this area, she would not even have been considered sub-acute.
I worked on the psych consultation-liaison team at big teaching hospital several years ago, and we had a lot of clients we followed in the dialysis clinic (med management and supportive therapy for depression, and also we were called in for a competency eval whenever someone decided they wanted to stop their dialysis). I remember frequently seeing elderly people in persistant vegetative states, seriously contracted (but breathing independently, darn the luck!), being wheeled in on gurneys from nursing homes for their thrice-weekly kidney dialysis. Why?? Because somebody (the government) would pay for it, and somebody else was making money off it ... If we can continue to dialyze people in COMAS indefinitely, I wouldn't be too worried about the outlook for the elderly in this country regarding healthcare, regardless of what healthcare "reform" gets passed.
Frankly, personally, I'd rather see a lot less of that kind of "treatment" happening.
That's more family members refusing to accept reality than that the facility wants them to continue on like that. If it takes rationing to stop this nonsense, and the cruelty caroladybelle described, so be it.
achot chavi
980 Posts
A bit harsh, dont you think, I too have been a nurse for over 20 years, most of them in geriatrics (both hosp based and SNF/ALF) and have seen the hospitals discharging pts to die in the nsg home. The regular pt 88+ you are referring to obviously are treatable and not on their death bed as was Mrs. Shriver.
We recently had a big fight over this issue as our Medical Director argued with the ER not to send the pt back as his condition was unstable and we lacked the proper staffing to handle it etc. The ER agreed to keep him over night but left him on a gurney in the hall in less than comfortable conditions, in the morning the wife cried to us to accept him and let him just die in comfort, which we did.
But lets face facts, Mrs. Shriver was obviously high profile and private pay and received treatment not as easily accessible to the average geriatric pt. If you are first learning that lesson today- well, then you were really born yesterday!!