A friend's husband died yesterday at home, the day after a visiting hospice nurse announced that he would die in a day or two. Let's call him Bill.
Bill's do-it-yourselver family had decided to bypass the funeral home. His body was washed by his wife and the hospice nurse and is "resting comfortably on a mattress on the dining room table."
I don't have a problem with the home viewing. I think it's great actually. I would do that myself, if I had someone die at home and the help I needed to pull it off.
But I do have a problem with how he died.
At the web page set up for Bill at CaringBridge.org, I was disturbed to see today that the wife's closest friend commented how happy she was that Bill's sufferings were "shortened."
That set off a red alert for me.
For a long time, I have suspected that hospice routines are often euthanasia in disguise.
And so I googled "hospice euthanasia."
One account I came across occurred in a hospice (not in home care). A newly-admitted man (I'll call him Joseph) had a bedsore and was eating the day he was admitted. They would not give Joseph antibiotics to continue to treat his bed sore and refused to give him food or water (ostensibly to prevent aspiration). And without medical necessity, according to the RN who was a friend of the family and present at the bedside, they started giving him large doses of morphine.
When the wife protested that her husband had eaten breakfast on the day he was admitted without any problem and she saw no reason why he would not be allowed to eat, the hospice nurse told the wife that she [the wife] just didn't get it, her husband was going to die in three days. She callously said this in the man's presence.
The RN who wrote the article reported that the hospice nurse's confidence in her prediction was due to long practice. The hospice nurse knew that three days was about how long it takes a person to die of dehydration after they start terminal sedation.
Reading this, I recalled that the hospice nurse at my friend Bill's home predicted Bill's death in a day or two. I now suspect she was able to do so because it's all part of the normal hospice procedure. She too knows how long it takes a person to die of dehydration. Bill had been taking a lot of morphine for quite some time. He had gotten a head start with the dehydration since he hadn't been able to drink water for days. He was already starving, since he hadn't been able to eat for weeks, and he was skin and bones.
When I wrote an email a few days ago to his wife and asked about tube feeding, because it might make him more comfortable (it could provide water along with the nourishment), she replie, "No feeding tube. Bill is dying, and neither of us cares to prolong the process any longer than necessary."
The truth about dying is that our lives and our deaths are in the hands of God. He made us and we live and die according to His will. To take our own lives is called suicide. To take another person's life is murder. The 10 Commandments are still in effect whether we believe in them or not.
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Rather, the natural moral law is still in effect, as Christ fulfilled the Judaic law. No Catholic --- and no man --- is required to keep the Sabbath holy. We have the Lord's Day instead.
ReplyDeleteNot to nitpick, but it seemed important.
Thanks for the clarification, B.B. I automatically translate in my mind the commandment about keeping holy the sabbath into the Christian Sunday.
ReplyDeleteInteresting blog. I googled "hospice euthanasia" and found your site. I believe they made this choice for my father just two weeks ago. Please continue to research this topic, I know I will.
ReplyDeleteI believe that many people are unaware of this even being a possibility with hospice and this information needs to get out. I know this was the case with us and am still in shock that he is gone.
Thank you for this blog. This just happened to one of my 16 year old disabled patients (I am a home care nurse) just last week. When I tried to see if something could be done to stop it, I found out the hard way that Hospice had already taken over. He was gone in less than 24 hrs after "terminal sedation". And for the record, he was perfectly stable.
ReplyDeleteThat is a horrible story and very frightening. I would like to add that I do not think that this is the norm as people I know who were terminal (but not in immediate danger of death) were not given this type of "treatment" at all.
ReplyDeleteOne Catholic priest I knew was on hospice for perhaps 3 or 4 months and the main difference for him was his quality of life improved when he could stop testing his blood sugar (he was diabetic). He took meals as long as he was able and seemed very at peace.
Although we are allowed to refuse medical care, food and especially water are not considered "medical care". They are simply imperative for life.
That said, sometimes as patients near death they do refuse most food and water, for whatever reason. At what point is it right to supersede their wishes and force IVs or tube feedings? I don't think that's an easy one to answer.
My father passed away on Christmas. On the Friday before he died, he passed out early in the morning. A nurse determined he was in congestive heart failure, yet, after several weeks of low white cell counts, he developed a high fever that morning. A doctor never examined him. He was immediately given morphine as soon as he began to come to, but was denied fluid or food. They said he couldn't swallow. Certainly, since they added atavan to the morphine by mouth, he wasn't able to communicate. Yet, he tried desperately to suck on the mouthwash swab. I argued, but my sister, a nurse, was his power of attorney. She insisted that he was under hospice care and that giving him fluids would drown him. So he dehydrated over the weekend and my objections were ignored. I'm haunted by this. The same thing was done to my mother in the same nursing home and I couldn't stop that either. They take advantage of your grief and tell you that you aren't accepting their death and you should let them go---but God, not like that. I'm so upset. After reading these blogs, I knew I was right all along, but the system is so difficult to fight because it's so legalized. God have mercy on us.
ReplyDeleteBez, your not alone. Wow your story sounded exactly like mine, my father was fine one day then the next they said he had possibly a stroke because he was aspirating. They stopped giving him food and drink and started with morphine and ativan. I knew it just like you that he was out of it because of the tranqualizers. But hospice took over and continued to drug him until he passed 3 days later.....
ReplyDeleteI just saw hospice in at=ction for myself. Everything that has been said here about them euthanasing people is true. I will never have hospice near me or anyone I love. Anyone who allows them around an ill person is just putting head in the sand.
ReplyDeleteI think that many families allow hospice to come in without knowing exactly what they do. They take all the patients medication away and start them on morphine. Within a day or two they are comatose, they don't open their eyes or talk. You talk to them and wonder if they can still hear and understand you...they don't respond. I witnesssed this firsthand when my mother in-law came home from the hospital with terminal cancer. The hospice nurse said she would live until the next Wednesday and she was right-she died the next Wednesday immediatley after the hospice nurse came by to deliver the last fatal injection! I am convinced that Hospice is nothing but euthanasia, and families must have an honest conversation with the patient and each other about what hospice really is BEFORE inviting them in.
ReplyDeleteI love your blog about the true Catholic Faith, but I am sad about the misunderstandings I am reading about hospice. I have worked as a chaplain with four different hospices. Euthanasia has never been practiced by our nurses. I wish I had space to respond to all the concerns and misunderstandings expressed here. (Perhaps some of them have witnessed euthanasia, I don't know.) We have done tube feedings whenever appropriate and wished by the patient. But with most others tube feedings are inappropriate when the body is no longer able to process food. Some with hydration when the body is unable to produce urine. Sometimes experienced nurses can predict death by new blotches at the joints of a dying person. It is not in the financial interest of a hospice to shorten the life of a dying person since Medicare pays hospice by the day. However, I do fear the time when government beaurocrats takes over the medical decision-making process. But up until now, there is no reason for a hospice to shorten the life of dying persons. In my experience, whenever families asked us to "do something" to end a patient's life, we alsways refused and educated them that we can't do that, it is immoral and against the law, and our liscense would be revoked. All my bosses, directors, and managers said the same thing.
ReplyDeleteTube feeding isn't natural nor would I think God would want anyone you exist that way. Hospice us suppose too be for those that are going to die soon and only have their suffering prolonged by aggressive medical treatment. Morphine by its nature may hasten someone's death but is not used for that reason. Hospice meant my grandfather could come home and die in his home in peace... instead of spending three months in a hospital with a feeding tube before dying.
ReplyDeleteNot offense but you have no real clue what you are talking about.
Dear Anonymous. I don't feel that you read my post. And writing "No offense" before you wrote "you have no real clue what you are talking about didn't give you the right to insult me.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad your grandfather could die in his home in peace with the help of hospice. I am just documenting that there is a protcol that seems to be used by many hospice providers that stops all antibiotics and refuses food (not tube feeding) and water to someone who was able to eat and drink before that person came under their care. I didn't propose tube feeding, although I don't see anything wrong with it. So you are criticizing me for something I didn't even say. No offense, but you have no real clue what you are talking about.
My mother was to come home on home care and that is what the dr signed off on. Someone made a call and switched it without our consent to hospice. By the time we were able to reverse it, my mother was near death. At home in "hospice" no one cared how much morphine she was given. The nurse even gave her more after we told her we already gave her some. It's funny, at the hospital, there was a protocol to be followed to administer morphine, even in her last hour. The drugs they wanted us to give her round the clock were contraindicated for her illness and so we did not use them much at all. We loved our mother, she was not ready to die then and kept voicing her feelings. Someone decided that it was her time and by the time we could get things rolling for her treatment again, it was too late. Losing a parent is a terrible thing, particularly when it didn't have to be this way. I am sure some hospice programs are good. In our case, we believe it hastened her death, there was no mercy in it, and it went against all of our beliefs in life. In my opinion, hospice is only paving the way for widespread euthanasia. A wolf in sheep's clothing, procaliming good, yet really dripping with evil.
ReplyDeletethank you so much for this blog I have been so confused and tormented on making a decision what to write in my Power of health directive on answering the questions about a living will then I found out a living will was starvation but this has really cleared things up for me about hospice thank you so much it had to have been God that let me find this
ReplyDeleteI am a nurse in long term care---Hospice does abuse morphine. It is often used to hasten death. Hitler's doctors perfected this if you study anything about medical practices of the third reich. Hospice has become a wolf in sheep's clothing. Not to say that there aren't good people in Hospice. Some nurses give massive doses of Morphine because they are told that it helps with air hunger---helps the person breathe easier---these naive nurses believe this---and with good intention administer doses every hour or even every thirty minutes---this drug builds to toxic levels in the weakened body---sedates the patient---drops the blood pressure---causes cyanosis---and cheyne stoking----all signs of overdose and approaching death---If morphine is continued death comes quickly---Some nurses and doctors argue that this is merciful---even if it is done without the family or patients consent. Doctors and nurses are playing God.
ReplyDeletePlease continue your research into this dangerous, common, unethical practice. A great source for further info on this practice of stealth euthanasia is hospicepatients.org.
Many churches through out our country blindly support hospice. We must help open eyes to there evil practice of stealth euthanasia.
The fear and misunderstanding about hospice here is truly sad. I worked as a patient volunteer for a local hospice service years ago, and have since known several people who were under hospice care themselves or had friends/loved ones who were.
ReplyDeleteHospice does not practice euthanasia. Period.
Hospice does, however, provide a unique type of care that focuses specifically on the needs of patients who have already been given a prognosis *by a non-hospice medical provider* of 6 months or fewer to live, with a large number of those patients having much shorter expediencies at the time they are referred to hospice - again, by providers who are not affiliated with hospice.
Hospice is distinctly different from hospitals or other medical providers in that its model is not about prolonging life; instead, it provides palliative care that makes the last few months/weeks/days as comfortable for the patient as possible. Food is not forced, and pain medications are available (and often controlled by patients themselves) as needed to treat pain, without the normal protocols found in hospitals, because those protocols are largely designed to prolong life as much as they are to relieve pain.
Unfortunately for many dying patients, hospital pain medication protocols simply aren't enough...and terminal patients who die in hospitals are much more likely to do so in agony than is necessary.
The idea that prolonging life is more important than addressing the needs of people who are already near death is baffling to me. The comment that mentioned morphine protocols followed in hospitals "even at the last hour" is completely appalling. It's a shame but kind of telling that so many of the comments here indicate a much greater concern with "not shortening life" but none of them talk about the quality of life during those last moments. I guess we don't like to think about it but having seen both of my parents and several friends die of cancer, it can be excruciatingly painful when your body is being ravaged by cancer. I would far rather do whatever I could to alleviate this pain than to milk one more day of life out of anyone. Death is a reality we don't seem very able to accept, but our efforts to avoid it at all costs can result in downright cruelty.
Can it hasten death if morphine is allowed to be administered freely enough to do its job and make a dying patient comfortable? Absolutely. Is that a bad thing? I'd urge you to think about that one very carefully before you answer.
You are nitpicking .....your comment so unnecessary regarding keeping the Sabbath, only posted to ......post
ReplyDeleteI never intended to claim all hospice centers practice immediate terminal sedation, but from what I've seen, a lot do. I was happy to see that my friends had a good experience when the husband's mother had in-home hospice visits when she was dying of cancer. There was no attempt at terminal sedation, or withdrawal of fluids or food. So that's one first hand experience of hospice being of benefit, easing the dying person's last days, instead of giving them a three-day death sentence.
ReplyDelete