reality of terri schiavo case

Thanks for the great post. I apologize if I offended you earlier by insinuating on my own blog that you were unwilling to commit to an opinion on the subject. As with everything hospice-related, things are always more complex than they first appear. My mother-in-law has shared many stories like the one you wrote here where the complications of different family dynamics intersect when some family member is nearing the end of their life.

Thanks for your honesty and the very interesting post. Your story is important for people to hear. Death is not a unique thing for any of us, it’s an eventuality, a guarantee. The work you do in seeing folks through those last stages of their lives is every bit as important as the delivery nurses and OB/GYNs who help see us into the world. I only wish more people could see that fact or respect it.

And I’ll be taking your advice and getting a living will ASAP.

Hey, thanks for the info on the five wishes program. I’ve taken the “five wishes at work” info and emailed it to my employer (we have hundereds of thousands at my place of employment) and asked them to please implement and offered my services to lead the brown bag meetings.

Great info!

PS- I do have a living will, but I’ve made my brother the person in charge, rather than my hubby because my hubby said he could never follow through with what I wanted. He’s too much of a softie. My bro would pull the plug in two seconds! ha ha

Here’s a link of advanced directives by state that’s worth checking out.
http://www.uslivingwillregistry.com/forms.shtm

Galen

Very well said….the only thing unusual about this case is that it was used as a whipping post for the politicians.

Obviously I don’t know the details of the cases you described, but I think you may have missed an aspect of this case that makes it unusual, IMHO.

Like you, I have seen multiple cases where family members disagree regarding the care provided. Unfortunately, in many cases there is no Living Will, and, even worse (at least from my standpoint as an ER doc), no durable power of attorney for health care to name the one person to whom I can turn for decisions.

Sometimes, when there is a DPOAHC, the situation has changed since it was completed and the primary caretaker is overuled by a sibling who hasn’t seen the patient in 5 years.

In this situation, the parents are arguing that the judge who ruled that TS was in persistent vegetative state was biased and had an opinion prior to presentation of the evidence. They are arguing that the judge deliberately limited the witness list to support his preconceived opinion. They are asking for a new hearing where they can present evidence.

You didn’t mention whether the cases you described had been to court. If they are anything like the ones I have to deal with every week, they haven’t. This makes the TS case relatively unusual.

Hospice Guy, I am not a fan of the federal government or any government sticking its collective nose into a private family decision about life or death. I am a bit concerned, however, that when a family member petitioned the courts in Florida to change Terri Schiavo’s guardianship because of neglect by her husband, the case appears not to have been fairly heard, but rather taken as a chance to expand the “right to die”. (Here I thought it was an inevitabiltiy, not a right.) I wouldn’t be allowed to treat my cat the way Terri Schiavo is being treated and if she were a child were denying her medical treatment for religious reasons, social services of some sort would have stepped in long ago.
I really pray that she is in PVS because if she’s not, she’s on her fourth day without food or water and feeling terrible pain. I don’t care who tells you otherwise, starvation hurts. (I recall waking after 3 days of unconsciousness following an accident and begging for water that I couldn’t have until the medicos finished their required exams and then wishing I could have more than ice chips to eat.)

I forgot to say, you are SOOOOOO right about living wills. Get one, EVERYBODY!!!

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