Coming soon to America. You betcha!
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2240075/Now-sick-babies-death-pathway-Doctors-haunting-testimony-reveals-children-end-life-plan.html
Of course, this is a hot button issue for me. Right now, as a nurse, one who works in hospice mind you, I found several clinical inaccuracies in that article. But, I realize this doesn't matter to most. You, Live, have an agenda and this article fits your agenda. Typically, you cycle from a period of posting nothing but propaganda, to occasionally making a point with your own words, to not posting much at all and back to the top of your cycle. And so it is with this post. An open discussion would include something that balances your article. You aren't interested.
In the past year, I have taken care of several pediatric patients whose parents have chosen the route of using feeding tubes, after countless surgeries, to keep their child "alive". In several cases, the amount of sedatives we have to give to keep them from seizures keeps them in a state of subconsciousness and keeps their nervous system depressed to the point where it won't seize and shake. It provides some contrast to the term ghastly as portrayed in this article.
I left the ICU because I saw case after case where doctors outright lied in giving a family a false sense of hope if they just had one more surgery. Instead, their loved one never wakes up and spends their final days on a ventilator waiting for that moment when their heart stops and everyone comes running to code them. The discussions on health care in this country and around the world are being driven by use of extreme examples. As a nurse, my job is being redefined by two major forces, those who manage cost and those who teach us to "sell" to patients as if they are consumers buying a TV.
For what it's worth, this article was talking about children with severe congenital anomalies. they don't say what anomalies of course, just a nebulous group of them. Feeding a child by "tube" as they put it, will not stop their tongue from clinging to the roof of the mouth, proper mouth care at the bedside will accomplish this, mouth care, by the way, that can be performed by family as well as a nurse and that can be accomplished regardless of what artificial means are withdrawn.
and you thought it was just for old farts.
ReplyDeleteOf course, this is a hot button issue for me. Right now, as a nurse, one who works in hospice mind you, I found several clinical inaccuracies in that article. But, I realize this doesn't matter to most. You, Live, have an agenda and this article fits your agenda. Typically, you cycle from a period of posting nothing but propaganda, to occasionally making a point with your own words, to not posting much at all and back to the top of your cycle. And so it is with this post. An open discussion would include something that balances your article. You aren't interested.
ReplyDeleteIn the past year, I have taken care of several pediatric patients whose parents have chosen the route of using feeding tubes, after countless surgeries, to keep their child "alive". In several cases, the amount of sedatives we have to give to keep them from seizures keeps them in a state of subconsciousness and keeps their nervous system depressed to the point where it won't seize and shake. It provides some contrast to the term ghastly as portrayed in this article.
I left the ICU because I saw case after case where doctors outright lied in giving a family a false sense of hope if they just had one more surgery. Instead, their loved one never wakes up and spends their final days on a ventilator waiting for that moment when their heart stops and everyone comes running to code them. The discussions on health care in this country and around the world are being driven by use of extreme examples. As a nurse, my job is being redefined by two major forces, those who manage cost and those who teach us to "sell" to patients as if they are consumers buying a TV.
For what it's worth, this article was talking about children with severe congenital anomalies. they don't say what anomalies of course, just a nebulous group of them. Feeding a child by "tube" as they put it, will not stop their tongue from clinging to the roof of the mouth, proper mouth care at the bedside will accomplish this, mouth care, by the way, that can be performed by family as well as a nurse and that can be accomplished regardless of what artificial means are withdrawn.