Posted on 11/10/2009 10:52:34 PM PST by pillut48
In the end the young father could fight no longer.
For more than a year he had made daily visits to the hospital bedside of his chronically-disabled son.
For six emotional days in the High Court he had battled against the hospital - and the baby's mother - who were reluctantly seeking the right to withdraw life support.
Finally, faced with overwhelming evidence, he made the 'agonising' decision to let his beloved son go.
Both parents wept as the court was told he no longer opposed the hospital's application.
They said later they wanted to spend 'what little time remains with their beloved son'.
The father's heart-breaking move came after an independent expert said his son's quality of life was not good enough to justify prolonging it.
The 13-month-old boy, identified only as RB, has an extremely rare disorder that has robbed him of almost all muscle control.
His brain is undamaged, but trapped in an almost immovable body, unable to speak or even smile.
Incapable of breathing, he has been dependent on a ventilator since he was born.
Now it will be turned off within days. Doctors will administer a large dose of sedative to ensure the little boy does not suffer as he dies.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
When my father had a stroke, his legs froze up and couldn’t move them. He was on Medicare and my mother couldn’t get a doctor to answer her calls as to what she had to do next, like get him into therapy or have a nurse come to the home. Finally she got a hold of a social worker and my father was placed in a private nursing home. My mother had to pay for that herself nearly losing her home to keep him in there, then finally my father was placed in a medicare approved nursing home for men. Try finding one of those and having space available in the state of Michigan. After my father was placed there, and it was depressing, the doctors basically medicated him to keep him sedated. When we noticed his foot looking infected, the nurses said he came in like that. I believe them but we were never aware of his other bed sores until it was too late. It was a stressful time so we did put our trust in the few people who were helping us.
I feel the system basically wrote him off to die. He was in his seventies and once he was on medicare, nobody wanted to deal with him.
If the only thing that kept this dear little child alive was living in a hospital, then, painful as it is, he wasn't going to have any real life without a miraculous solution to heal him.
As a mother I can imagine the pain of the parents and family, but for this little guy's sake, letting him go just might be the right thing to do. He obviously can't survive on his own.
So very sad.
I’ll have to respectfully disagree with you sir.
Disagreement is OK.
You’re right, Cherry. I don’t like what the doctor’s are going to do, but he cannot breathe on his own nor move any muscles. He is imprisoned in his own body.
If he can’t breathe on his own he will never have a decent life. This is a horrible condition for anyone to be in, much worse than prison.
I know that none of us like this, but if any of you were in this state for a year and knew it would be the rest of your life, would you want it to end?
So, are you suggesting that they should be “helped to die”, which is just a euphemism for murder, by denying them sustenance? God alone should decide the time of our deaths.
There is a vast difference between using whatever skills and knowledge man has been given to sustain life naturally, and denying life because some human “expert” has decided the quality of life is not worth helping to sustain through such basic means as nourishment.
What if he was an illegal alien?
While I'm outraged that the House had the audacity to pass this unconstitutional health care bill, I can't see where it relates to this baby boy's situation. My understanding is that he can't survive outside of the hospital, that that's the only thing keeping him alive.
There's a limit to how much time hospitals can afford to keep patients. Adults are either sent home with proper care, or to a nursing home. If this baby is dependent on a machine to keep him alive, I don't see a moral problem in shutting down the machine.
That's just my thoughtful opinion. I may be wrong.
Too bad you can't see the wry smile on my face. The unmitigated truth is, dear, that you obviously are not gifted with common sense. You clearly have not educated yourself about the government take-over of every American citizen's health care.
If the Senate and the House come to an agreement on just how they will control our health care decisions, do you really want politicians controlling what medical procedures you can have and those you will be denied?
The silliest comment I've heard on this so far is: "Give me the name of the Insurance Company that you know that will provide intensive medical life for life."
And you actually believe the U.S. Government will do that for you. Who do you think is going to pay for that kind of coverage? I'll tell you. All the people in this country who go to work to earn a salary. Your health care will be stolen from their honest earnings.
I am sorry to hear about your father. I did not know there were nursing homes just for men. All ours have patients of both sexes.
I am an expert in nursing homes and hospitals having married into a family of 13 children most of whom lived into their late 80s and 90s. Alzheimer’s, senile dementia and cancers have been their lot for the most part. I have been the chauffeur for all the sisters but now I am the only one left that can possible visit as the last one at home is pretty far gone and will be in a Residencia in year or so when she is 90.
All this and more for the extended family never cost them a penny, and the nursing home only costs 2/3rd of whatever the Government pays out in Social Security to the patient for long term care - the other third is for the family to buy gifts and/or pay for a taxi to the Residencia for folks who do not drive.
With the longevity here - Death Care is failing miserably
Why you think the results will be different here
If this is really about healthcare or maybe it is more about some deep seeded need you have to see people with more than you punished. Even to your own detriment.
Because after reading that list, there is no way a rational person can come to the conclusion that government run healthcare is a good thing.
Just think what you pay for the cost of building, maintaining, manning and equipping eight aircraft carriers and their escort for twenty years to prepare for imagined threats. Then, we can talk about cost of health care for all to prepare for reality.
When you lose your job, your insurance and you or your wife get a hospital bill I hope you think of my silly comment.
Give ‘em an oxygen bottle and ship his criminal butt back across the border.
I’ll tell you what, friend. We’ll worry about spending OUR money on “imagined threats” and you keep your focus on what your cowardly country is going to run from next.
Buzz off.
I don't know what country you are from, Cardhu. But the fact that the US has been in a position to defend the free world for 50 years has given other countries the luxury of spending little money on defence. Soon other countries will not have that luxury. Nor will they have the US as the economic engine of the world, the destination of higher education seekers and professional employees, the escape valve for the Canadian and foreign wealthy from the restrictions of their own socialist health systems, and the beneficiary of innovation and entrepreneurialism. All that is declining and will continue to decline more, as it has in Britain. And the world will not be better off for it.
I'm friends with a couple whose baby boy died, then was revived at birth but had massive brain damage as a result. They are by no means rich or even well-off. He was essentially a vegetable yet the child was provided for (with around the clock at-home care) by insurance at first then public aid for about 8 years before he passed.
Yes I know that public aid doesn't mean the same as 'private health insurance' directly but I would rather my tax dollars go to a program (such as part of a current established public aid program like medicare) and NOT to keeping death row inmates alive for 35+ years while they ride out their 376 appeals.
“The father’s heart-breaking move came after an independent expert said his son’s quality of life was not good enough to justify prolonging it. “
No death panel there, nothing to see, move along.
United Healthcare
Death panels are a fact of govt run healthcare. Govt run healthcare where the decision to kill is financial and not based on the persons chance of recovery.
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