There's one thing they left out of the article. Yes, we are all going to get sick, and eventually die. Doctors--know the expected survival rates. Doctors do seem to end up with the right medications to really make those last days comfortable, or take the right amout and overdose properly?
Now, their patients, especially the poor, stereotyped, etc. are sent home, and when a doctor feels like they need Hospice, they give their approval.
I had a poor friend die. It was obvious he only had a few months left, but the doctor wouldn't o.k. Hospice? We went to two clinics, and a pain clinic and neither would give him
the medications (Opioids and Benzodiazepines) he needed. One pain clinic(noted one of the better ones--in San Francisco) offered to cut some nerves?(I still don't know what these Blow Hards wanted to cut.)
Why didn't he get the right medications; well in the states we assume everyone is going to abuse drugs. It's just getting worse. Doctors are not taking away pain.
O.K., but once you have Hospice, everything is fine these fine? Doctors are trained in Pallitive care--if you get lucky. My experience watching my father die of liver cancer was a week of Hell. Hs last words to me before he went onto one of his last comas was "Son--when will this end?" Yea--no shit!
The nurse finally came around. She then let my sister manipulate
his medications which made his discomfort even worse.(my sister thought he should spend more time with his grand kids, and she wanted him to give her more things?) There I said it. Yea, she's a piece of work.
I know this. When I am given that diagnosis of death. I used to think I would go to the bad part of town and buy smack, crack, whatnot, but as I've gotten older and I don't
have the fight in me like I did in my 30's; I will probally
just suffer through the agony of death like my father endured? Or, I might do what Robin Williams felt he had to do?
Robin's wife said she was glad he picked up his ipad when he walked by her. She said, Robin hadn't watched tv, nor went on the Internet for the last six months.
Robin was found in his stepson's bedroom with a belt
around his neck. A towel was wrapped around the belt. I'm assuming to make the suicide more comfortable? Crude knife marks on his wrists--from a pocket knife. An ipad was found
near the body with websites open to the the various side effects of the drugs he was given. I don't know all the drugs he was given, but they found a bottles of Seroquil? and a drug used to help with the neurological disorder he had.
Why did I repeat this story. Because this is how we are forced to die in the United States. I don't know why Robin committed suicide. He sounded like he was suffering for a long time, on many levels? I don't know if the prescription drugs he was taking made things worse? Either way, he shouldn't have had to die like this. I'll pass this along too. Don't think suicide is easy. I knew a guy who tried to blow his head off with a shot gun. He blew his frontal cortex off, and spent the next 30 years paralized in a rest home. He died of a lung infection.
I didn't know him personally. I worked for the Cororners office at the time, and picked up hs body.
Enough, I feel sick from even writing about this gruesome stuff, but nothing changes. Doctors should treat the pain of their patients, and the government shoud not harass them.
And we need a "right to die with dignity" law like Oregon passed. They passed it a few years ago, and very few decided
to use the kit. Most decided to go naturally, but it must be reassuring knowing you have an alternative? I yacked on, but it's something I think about often.