Damn hospitals anyway

[millennium_bard]

Ever hear about the so called "Five Wishes"?
Here in NE is it a booklet that supposedly allows you to choose how you are treated when you are in immanent danger of dying.
This is supposed to be a guide for the doctors and nurses for when you are unable to speak or make decisions for yourself.

The choices range from DNR (Do Not Resuscitate)
to Use Any Means Needed To Keep Me Alive. (ie: Full Life Support)

The problem with the "Five Wishes" is that if you choose any option but DNR the doctors and nurses at the local hospital repeatedly badger the patient and his/her family to change to the DNR option.

And at this hospital anyway, DNR = Do Not Treat If Potentially Life Threatening Condition.

The doctors try to say that they prefer to allow a patient to expire with dignity and a minimum of fuss.
The more honest ones admit that they do not want to waste their efforts and hospital resources on terminally ill patients.

They make a big deal about Hospice care etc.
I can see where the hospice has it's place. But to badger and harass patients and their families when decision making is hard enough at best is beyond the pale.

I told them where to shove their "Five Wishes" and told the doc that he could end up a patient if he kept bugging me about it today.

If I had signed that damn thing they way they wanted me to I wouldn't be alive today.

/rant

 

[voluptuary_manque]

Now see? In my wife's hospital, it's the exact opposite. Go figure.

 

[rgraham666]

Patients dying saves money.

And allows them to make a little more if they can harvest organs.

 

[MagicaPractica]

That's sad and scary. Thankfully, definitely not what I have seen. There are good places too.

 

[sr71plt]

Now see? In my wife's hospital, it's the exact opposite. Go figure.

That was my more recent experience too. My mother had a very definite DNR and was purposely starving herself to death and refusing medicine--by her choice. That weakened and confused her to the point, however, that she couldn't physically resist being fed the food and medicine, so they kept her alive, bedridden, in a confused semicoma despite all of the family members pointing out the DNR--for five months until she just withered away.

 

[voluptuary_manque]

That was my more recent experience too. My mother had a very definite DNR and was purposely starving herself to death and refusing medicine--by her choice. That weakened and confused her to the point, however, that she couldn't physically resist being fed the food and medicine, so they kept her alive, bedridden, in a confused semicoma despite all of the family members pointing out the DNR--for five months until she just withered away.

Catholic hospital, too, perhaps?

 

[millennium_bard]

The DNR choice is there for a good reason and should always be honored.
It's when the docs throw a fit about any other choice that bugs me.

The new hospital administrator is a lawyer. He has no medical training at all.
The reason that he got the job in the first place is that his brother was a doctor there at the hospital.

Getting any lawyer around here to file a malpractice suit no matter how well deserved is almost impossible. No lawyer in the area wants to go up against him.

The quality of treatment at the hospital had plummeted since this guy took over.
The good doctors have mostly picked up stakes and moved away.

 

[DesertPirate]

The DNR choice is there for a good reason and should always be honored.
It's when the docs throw a fit about any other choice that bugs me.

The new hospital administrator is a lawyer. He has no medical training at all.
The reason that he got the job in the first place is that his brother was a doctor there at the hospital.

Getting any lawyer around here to file a malpractice suit no matter how well deserved is almost impossible. No lawyer in the area wants to go up against him.

The quality of treatment at the hospital had plummeted since this guy took over.
The good doctors have mostly picked up stakes and moved away.

Lawyers are just like accountants, very useful in their area but never to be put in charge! They don't know the product, they don't know the customers, they don't know the business, why would anyone think they can run it?

 

[Guest]

My parents have specific "Do Not Resuscitate" written in their wills.

Perhaps it's different in Kansas or Missouri, as patients will be force fed and kept alive despite their wishes unless it is legally specified.

On the other hand, with a terminal illness, Hospice is a wonderful organization.

 

[DesertPirate]

My parents have specific "Do Not Resuscitate" written in their wills.

Perhaps it's different in Kansas or Missouri, as patients will be force fed and kept alive despite their wishes unless it is legally specified.

Hospice is a wonderful organization.

Every state is a bit different, be careful when traveling

 

[SeaCat]

Do not blame the hospital staff. The Nurses and Doctors have been hired and work under certain regulations.

Blame instead the Hospital Administrators and their bosses/owners, the Insurance companies.

Cat

 

[sr71plt]

Catholic hospital, too, perhaps?

Nope, a general hospital owned by a consortium of physicians (one of whom was my brother-in-law--and he couldn't get them to stop keeping her alive either).