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.
You get together a group of "respected" physicians, everybody sues the pants off hospices and such for giving too much morphine, and pretty soon, they will outlaw morphine administration during hospice. They will say, oops, too many people dying, gotta stop that! It's the punish-everyone-in-the-class-for-one-persons-screw-up mentality that is pervasive in the US today.
So, what would you rather have? Your loved one die a few days/weeks/months sooner than you had hoped, after a life of 80-100 years? Or your loved one in excruciating pain, and no one will be able to give them relief?
We shouldn't have to choose, but I can see it happening.
Even if there was an overdose done and the person made it out alive. It does not mean that the elder patient did not suffer any damages.It can cause all kinds of serious damages.Sometimes it is an accident. Our doctor sincerely apologized when that happened. That is not the same thing as a medical staff deliberately doing the wrong thing. When it is deliberate that is when it should be reported.There really needs to be laws about sedatives and dangerous drugs,especially with the elders.
The doctor or nurse in question can just go to another hospital.That is why I recommend everyone who has had this happened to them, should report it and should never ignore it,contact the investigators and do a coroner investigation if there is any suspicion. Eventually these kind of killers will hopefully get caught if there are enough complaints and the country or state you are in cares at all.Even if they don't they will have to pay attention if everyone reports it.
I know there was one American nurse that got caught by his colleague. He only got caught cause his colleague got him to confess while she recorded him. He killed a lot of people in very sneaky ways before she caught him. If his colleague had never befriended him he would still be out there killing. I think some of his patients that he killed were very sick and mostly all elders and some sick and elder. The families may have thought that their loved ones died from old age or their sickness.He was one of the few American medical staff that did get caught the rest of these kind of killers are still out their killing it is just too difficult. It makes me beyond mad and upset that these atrocities are allowed to go on and these thugs are allowed to be free and do as they want which is horrific.Anyone who can take a life and or lives intentionally, needs to be locked up forever and throw away the key. That is why everyone needs to report it. Then they may listen eventually.
You are so right, so many people on here have lost their loved one to sedative or morphine overdoses or other ways that are very suspicious. I also know of many other sites where people have dealt with the same thing as here. I have also talked to people personally that have had this same thing happen to them.I hope everyone that this has happened to will have investigations done.
My mom was killed in a horrible way by bad drugs that were given to her by medical staff against her will and ours.These drugs put her into a coma where she remained until the end which was a couple of weeks this last coma. She was not even able to eat or drink or talk.She was very strong and very healthy.They had overdosed her so many times but she somehow managed to survive though she did suffer a lot.She would go back to the hospital for help to recover from the complications from the drugs only to be put into another overdose again and again. The staff knew that she was not allowed to have these drugs. She was not even a smoker or sick. She did have a skin fungal infection given to her by the hospital.It was very treatable but she was ignored. It had got worse but was still treatable.A doctor at the end treated her with proper meds and she recovered but still remained in the drug coma. there were other doctors that killed her by refusing to treat her her with proper meds only antibiotics which is deadly for this kind of infection. She had a DNR which could have contributed to her death cause it was easier to kill her with it. The evil staff must have wanted to get her heart to stop beating during one of these over doses and would not have to give her cpr. They even yelled out Dnr and were yelling for the drugs she could not have after she was already in the icu because of this last overdose from these drugs that they were yelling out and could not have.
I'm am still having a horrendous time even though it has been quite a while. This is so hard to accept, that medical staff who we are supposed to count on to help us or our relatives do this kind of thing and take lives, it is just beyond belief.
Another good one recently...my father is 93, still active and in pretty good health. He got a really bad cold a few weeks ago, and it started the night we went out for chili. So he goes to the Dr., tells him he ate some chili and now he has this horrendous cold, so what did they give him? Meds for indigestion! Really?? The man is sitting in front of you, sinuses totally stuffed, coughing, wheezing, and you give him omaprazole?! So disgusted with the medical profession!
blondmedicdoglv, I am very sorry to hear of your father's death. If he was on hospice I'm sure you knew he was in the final stage, but when it happens suddenly it is especially shocking and painful for the family. Hugs to you. Personally, I would rather go within 4 days of being laughing and joking, than have the experience drug out -- but of course we don't often get to choose. Were you your father's medical POA? Please let us know how your case proceeds. We learn from each other.
Could your father have been saved by draining his lungs instead of giving him morphine? I surely don't know. But apparently the medical professionals thought not, and your brother and sister with enough training to understand what the professionals were recommending agreed. It sounds to me (reading between your lines) that your brother and sister tried to explain this to you in non-technical terms, and perhaps the full importance of what they were saying didn't sink in.
Dear pshu333, your father's death was a great blow. Give yourself time to gradually heal to a more comfortable place. The real blow here is the death, and that is what you must accept and mourn. You were not "betrayed." In fact this was not about you at all. This was your father's drama. Focus now on your memories of him, of what parts of him live on in you, and on your grief at losing him. Give up all your concern over what words were used to describe his care and all the "what ifs" that can't be answered now. The real cause of your grief is enough to deal with. Let all the shadow issues go.
Hugs to you. You will never "get over" your dear father's death, but you will get past the intense and constant grief, and settle into a more comfortable knowledge that he remains a part of you.
My mother has a similar underlying condition, as I think your dad did, where the inefficiency of their hearts causes fluid buildup around their lungs. Sometimes fluid can be drawn off, but there comes a time when that is no longer possible. We have our mom on "comfort care", not hospice, because she has some other medical issues that are still responding to intervention. We have been told that if this begins to happen again to mom (the buildup of fluid), that morphine will be administered to ease her breathing and to prevent her from feeling as though she is drowning. I want my mother to pass painlessly, peacefully and without anxiety when her time comes.