Comments for End of Life Education

Comment on Elder Abuse: Treatment Without Consent by Susan Bracken

Susan Bracken — Sat, 22 May 2010 18:56:05 +0000

Succinct and complete information. Well put and how I wish everyone everywhere would do this!

Comment on Payment for End-of-Life Discussions in House Bill by Wauketa Kolodziej

Wauketa Kolodziej — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 02:08:37 +0000

After hearing Dr. Gordon speak on Nov. 12, my husband and I made sure we all the right paper work so our children do not have to deal with it. Dr. Gordon did an excellent job in explaining this and I am very grateful to him for explaining a lot of the legal parts of it. Our attorney was at this meeting also. Checked with him and I know we have everything taken care of.

Comment on PBS Story October 9th by nancy mily RN

nancy mily RN — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 15:23:45 +0000

On Oct 13th I got one of my community clients squaded to the ER at Doctor’s Hospital, a 58 year old man w/4th stage lung cancer and metastasis to the brain. I had found him at home, where he lived alone and had no relatives whose whereabouts he knew, and I suspected he was in R and L sided heart failure and/or pneumonia. He was extremely short of breath, and told me later he had thought he would die there, alone.
On Oct 14th he was stable in a step-down unit, and I explained in detail what would occur if he did not sign a Living Will, and he did not want to be kept on machines, nor did he want his heart re-started, “like on TV.” He wanted to sign a Living Will, but there was no chaplain response in the next 1/2 hour, and I was told to return the next afternoon. This man knew he was dying, and had known for some months.
On Oct 15th and 16th he was sedated w/Ativan, due to meeting some criteria, and was unresponsive. I protested the Ativan on the 15th ( a 2mg dose) and on the 16th ( a 1 mg dose). His medicated state made signing any legal documents not possible.
I left him about 6Pm on the 16th, and sometime after 7PM he was found “unresponsive.” He was put on a vent, etc, and transferred to the ICU.
I spoke w/the oncologist on the 17th, who told me he was planning to get a 2nd signature and would then be able to intervene based on some type of “compassionate care” status, so the man could be taken off life support.
This did not occur, as the Ethics Committee overruled such a plan based upon lack of written advanced directives, and the statement of a resident doctor (never named) who supposedly was told by this man on the eve of his admission, that he wanted “to be a full code.”
After advocating for this “harm” to cease, and for all these useless painful interventions to be discontinued, after speaking w/chaplains, doctors, social workers, nurses, administrators and risk managers to no avail, over the course of the next week, finally on Oct 23rd, I engaged an attorney for him, who would seek that all these extraordinary, painful interventions which had no chance of success be stopped.

Comment on Conservatives Are Missing the Point by Denise Chlastawa

Denise Chlastawa — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 17:52:28 +0000

I am a RN of 30 years, and I work in a long term acute hospital. The unit I work on is a vent unit where we try to wean patients off their vents. Most are elderly, and sad to say, most are full codes. Some are also on dialysis. Very few of the elderly ever make it home. I wish I could leave a copy of your book in every room. Just last night I tried to convince one of my patients’s daughter to at least make him a DNR. Didn’t work, she felt she could not live with herself if she did that.
I agree with you that education is the key. Code status should be discuss with every elderly patient. My widowed 83 year old mother who still lives by herself and still drives has her DNR papers on her fridge. My father lived 2 years in a nursing home and since his quality of life was poor, most of that time he was a hospice patient.