yep

What does living wills have to do with euthenasia?

I am very sorry that this happened to you Katzen
Many people want to believe that hospice is such a good thing. The original idea probably was good but now sadly it has just become a business an a competitive one at that. People become very emotional when their loved ones are involved and the hospice representatives take full advantage of this.

Thank you, finally someone asks the very question I am looking for an answer to.

Geez,

The four of us - parents, brother and self have sat down and discussed what we want to happen should anything ever happen. It's written, though whether it's valid or not is debatable. It's not that traumatic of an issue. We've got DNR's all over the place.

Just do it!

Regarding living will - the doc told me, there'd have to be a group of 3 doctors to agree that the person was braindead before they'd actually follow the living will anyways.

Hospice - sad to say, in the end, it's how well you can take care of your family, I personally believe. We did not used to dump our elderly or sick in such places. They stayed home and were taken care of by the family. Now, we dump them when it's inconvient.

So this means I can come out of hiding?

doing that will probably make the world a bit better and safer

I am a full code.

LOL noone wants to kill grandma this rumor was started by Sarah incest Palin. The End of life option is the same thing retard Bush tried to get passed but i didn't see not one of you bush bots oppose it then.

If the experience I had recently is anything close to what is to come people will be supporting all kinds of legislation to protect peoples rights when it comes to the need for skilled care, hospitalization, and hospice.

If you loose your capacity to think, complain, get yourself to a bathroom you better hope to god you have a team of family members who are willing to work together to care for you and some kind of access to medications.

Skilled Nurseing Care is a farce. Patients are lucky if they are fed and diapered once a shift. They want to give little or no preventive care includeing the use of lotions, tooth paste, diaper ointment, and shampoo while still chargeing tax payers $6,000 a month. Patients get charged for medical services that are never provided and some are not bathed for weeks at a time even when it is charted other wise. Doctors and nurses are too afraid of being punished for over medication and leave almost all medication PRN which most patients don't get it because they are incapable of asking for it. Clothes and personal items are chronically stolen.

Having a living will is a joke in the hospital setting unless a family member is there 24/7 and aggressive enough to block unwanted treatment which also usually results in the withholding of pain medication and the patient being discharged. You usually have to provide your own transportation home.

My experience with hospice is they are a pain in the ***. They come on their schedule, frequently late with minimally skilled aids, stir up the family who may or may not have any say in the decision making process with bits and peices of information, violate confidentiality, push unwanted religious and greif counseling, pass out drugs like candy, and push unwanted invasive procedures when renal failure is already advanced. Then they are johnny on the spot to drag out medical equipment before the body is even cold in the grave.

My experience is most people have little or no understanding or what procedures they do and do not want stated in a living will and rarely get honest answers as to how effective many of them are, how painful they are, or what side effects the drugs or medication will cause. Most doctors are not geriatricians or have any desire or ability to discuss these decisions with patients.

Most patients have no idea how long they can hang on (years), with chronic wounds, and no perceptible ability to communicate or understand what is happening to them except they are in pain and terrified.

Maybe some hospice places you know take in terminally ill people.

We didn't "dump" my mother there. She was at my sister's house. Ever other week I would drive over 560 miles and stay a week to help take care of my mother. Hospice provided EVERYTHING she needed to help make the rest of her life as comfortable as possible. We rolled her every two hours so she wouldn't get bed sores, we set our alarms and took shifts, never getting a full nights sleep. Am I complaining, no way, just trying to set the record straight that there are some people out there that do not "dump" their loved ones when they are dying.

God rest your soul ma
6/19/09


No government intrusion required.

I very much agree that some people DO NOT dump their loved ones at inpatient hospice facilities. They use hospice (part of medicare benefits) and have in home visits from a nurse, equipment and medications delivered to the families home. Some families do not use hospice at all but care for thier loved one at home on their own terms.
The inpatient hospice facilities compete for clients to obtain thier quota's and earnings. Also they compete for at home clients. The profit margin is high.
I have witnessed this competition as a nurse in a large hospital setting as an RN. Also I have worked for a hospice!!!! It is a major hospice that I will not mention here. For ethical reasons I left this place of employment.
You are to be commended for taking care of your loved one at home and being caring and responsible.
The problem I have is that so many people are not aware of what really happens if they give in to the hospice rep's. They are business professionals. Some cities/towns may only have one hospice
so the competition does not exist.

I guess it does depend on where you live. All in all, the government should keeps it's nose out of it. If someone doesn't use hospice what options do they have for everything they need, special bed, all meds, oxygen equipment, everything delivered to your door? If she needed something, hospice would have it delivered sooner than we can go get. If some families do not choose hospice what other options do they have? I'm not being a smart aleck, I'm curious. I cannot imagine my mother not having what she needed to make her dying as easy and painless as possible. I know for us, it made everything as easy as it could be taking care of a dying loved one.

The legislation would allow Medicare to pay for a counseling session with a doctor or clinical professional once every five years. The bill calls for such sessions to be "completely" voluntary, and prohibits the encouragement or promotion of suicide or assisted suicide.



ALLOW and VOLUNTARY are pretty significant words in this post. Counseling that is optional has always been our right anyway, if medicare wishes to cover the costs for its members,,whats the big deal? People get counseling about marriage, divorce, why not about decisions dealing with health and death arrangements? Seems like much ado about nothing,,,to me.

amean to the fact you took care of your mother. I am very glad to see people still do. However, there is nothing in this federal clause that mandates a living will, advanced directives or anything. The ONLY thing it does is mandate that every citizen has the RIGHT to seek counseling services, and get assistance with end of life needs, such as wills, end of life wishes, etc etc.

Hospice is Medicare part A. If a client does not choose to use Part A they still have regular Medicare benefits. Oxygen equipment for example is not just for Hospice patients.
I personally know of a man that stayed at home with his family but only needed a special bed which his family purchased. Whatever medications he needed his family picked up at the pharmacy. He was not in severe pain.
In the case of your family member if things were needed very quickly and hospice provided that than hospice was a good choice.

Think it's the fact we don't need fed help with this--- Like you say yourself in the above. You are saying and laughing at someone who says there are personal wills etc. Then you act like its a good idea for the fed to get involved-- Make up your mind---

Ok, thanks for clarifying, I really wasn't sure. Yes, my mother's condition was minute by minute and if something was needed it was as soon as possible. Thanks again

if ever there was a hell...