Nov 23 2009
The Cost of Dying
There was a great piece on 60 Minutes last night…
It would be wonderful if we could have a serious discussion about this in this country, but it isn’t going to happen as long as the Republicans can get their base all worked up with screams and lies about death panels, rationed care, and pulling the plug on grandma.
6 Responses to “The Cost of Dying”
I have so many mixed emotions on this whole right to die issue.
my dh is in a situation that means he is in and out of the hospital
alot with two failed kidneys and 2 failing lungs. his situation is one
that would have made the most astute doctors seem crazy.
yet with proper care and feeding (wink) he is still thriving;
going to work; and getting on my last nerve. if anyone were
to think they could make the decision on when to pull the plug
on that ole’ buzzard – seriously doh; they better be wearing a kevlar suit inside a lead lined building; because I was a sharpshooter when I was a cop; and i’m told
I’m even better now that I don’t have that badge holding me down.
yeah I got my AK; My Power of Attorney and My Law Books – any questions insurance companies ?
I’m so sorry I missed this, it’s an important discussion and one that really needs to take place. My mother died a few months back; but they continued to poke and prod and make her miserably for weeks. Medical Science sadly does keep some people alive longer than his humane. My mother said enough, no more and we get hospice involved. It’s never good to or easy to loose someone you love; but to see her go through such torment week after week with no hope of recovery was awful and put her through more than she needed to go through; and cost huge sums of money. It’s not cold hearted to say a real discussion needs to take place. NO ONE is saying pick who lives and dies; but there are times when we do no favors to the patient in the bed or to the suffering family watching by keeping someone alive on multiple machines. That’s not living. I do hope the show will be repeated.
Sandy
I should ad I worked in the medical field for over 20 years, and I very much support someone’s right to die.
It’s a very important topic. I understand what RE-BadGalSays is saying. Even if you understand not wanting to drag the end of life unnecessarily, it’s hard to tell the doctors to let them die.
But there’s a difference from someone cognizant wanting to live and still able to live reasonably with extra care, and someone who, no matter what they’ve directed, is spending weeks/months in hospitals at the mercy of the medical system when they are doing nothing but adding days to their lives – but what days.
I don’t know where the line is drawn. But I do know we can’t write a blank check to make people live indefinitely.
You gotta read this article:
http://www-cdn.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=120346411
End of life counseling SAVES money. Why? Because people decide ahead of time what they want. We get to honor patient choice. No one has to feel guilty about the care offered a loved one. It seems like such a no brainer to me.
My old man had a living will, advanced directive, and do not resuscitate papers, but that didn’t stop the hospital putting him on life support, feed-tubed and intubated, drugged to prevent him ripping out the apparatus, with no voice to express his extreme displeasure of this obscene violation of his right to live and die a free man. He still could flash an rude Italian gesture when he was conscious and someone deserving of his contempt was nearby, despite the restraints.
My mother called me home to see him before he died but really to show me all the papers and spend a month getting him removed from life support. No one would listen to her.
Before he finally died, she showed me some of the statements for the emergency and life-sustaining care neither of them wanted. They came to just under a million, and they continued to roll in after I came back home.
Where I live, I can actually choose to legally end my life before our current health care penal system gets their straps on me, but it wouldn’t have helped my father or my mother, because you have to ingest the ultimate party cocktail. The doctor can’t put it in the feed tube.
I’m neither left or right, but am disappointed that our leaders can’t get into a meaningful discussion about healthcare without politicizing it into utter stupidity.
My biggest concern is long term care. I’ve seen how it can absolutely destroy everything you’ve worked for in a very short period of time and make your last years miserable ones. Part of the reason that I’ve moved overseas is to get away from the worst of America’s healthcare system … at my age I need to make sure that I don’t fall victim to long term care. I’ve noticed that both the right and the left don’t really want to meaningfully address this big big big problem…so I’ve taken matters into my own hand and have found an overseas solution.