Posted on 12/07/2011 1:11:20 AM PST by JerseyanExile
Good post
In the hospital setting I can tell you that the one's we do CPR on....very few leave the hospital. Most die. Period.
CPR has nothing to do with Dyalisis
As the generation of older, fully insured people with real benefits die off, and what is left are millions with little or no health insurance, and little money for expensive medications or health care.
Ya heard it here first.
Was that clear enough?
I did not say CPR is worthless, in my opinion, it is far from worthless for what it is designed for, to be a bridge to help someone stay alive until a team of professionals can work on them.
And I did not say that CPR had anything to do with Dialysis. You might have me mixed up with someone else.
In the hospital I have seen when Respiratory therapy comes in they get up on the bed in some cases to be able to do it with force necessary to do any good and get the right angle....
It is a relief to the nurses when RT shows up and its usually a male that does the compressions...
For those that have practiced on Annie in a CPR course you realize the pressure needed and if your not doing it hard enough Annie tells you. (Annie is the dummy used in those classes)
I’m not one to bring my personal life onto a public forum, so thanks again for all the very kind posts which made it easier. We all face these things at some point in life. My last post on this:
(quote)My mother’s doctor’s partner did not want to treat my mother for pneumonia. Our discussion got really nasty, on her part. I just said treat her now and walked away. It’s a long story but she did not die that night. So I can say I have seen the enemy and won one battle and I know I can fight again if I must.”
I know exactly how you felt, and you know you did the right thing. Once the end came in my situation, I was hyper-vigilant, still in full battle mode, but with nothing left to fight.
The way I see it, as it’s fresh in my mind: When someone’s final days come, and it’s someone so close to us, it’s our duty to fight to ensure their wishes are sacredly respected, and that life ends as naturally as possible. Of course, the interpretation of that will be different for different people.
If my wife had been elderly or in a coma for months, the situation would have dictated differently, and I might have been persuaded to consider broader options. The bottom line is I would never want to.
As it turned out, that life/death decision was never meant to be in my hands, or the doctors. We may think we’re in charge and omnipotent with our all important decisions, but ultimately we don’t choose when we come into this world, nor when we leave. Even if we have to make such a decision, chances are it was already ‘made’. Life is a play with a Master Director - it’s beyond us, so naturally I don’t trust ‘experts’ who are eager to play that role.
Watch this phenomenon get even worse now that "death panels" are on the table.
Awesome smackdown!
It appears like you are are attempting to inject your thoughts and fears into it.
FWIW-
What’s futile is telling certain patients and families that the situation is futile. Better to shut up, do everything they want, make all that money by doing useless procedures. The outcome is predetermined, there is no chance of malpractice (since the outcome is death either way), and you avoid all the conflict with the fearful people who want everything done.
No brainer. Of course, for the people who listen and understand and can face death without fear, well then you can do some good by avoiding all the torture.
I see about 3 patient die per week in my specialty.
People didn't go to hospitals as there were not that many and for family's in rural area's it was a impossible trip. Don't forget, a lot still traveled horse and buggy in the country...Cars were for the rich...The family doctor took it as part of his practice to do such things at the patients request...It was the compassionate thing to do...My father said he will never forget the pain his father went through....This would have been probably in the 1920's. Most died at home and with the family hold a wake...
I still remember my uncle being laid out in his casket at home in his living room...I was probably only about 4 at the time...That's how people lived...We seem so far removed from death with most dying in hospitals and nursing home, alone. It wasn't like that always...death was a part of life.
I would rather die in my own bed that in a hospital tied up to machines, catheters to remove unine, IV's pumping medications into my body and some damnable machine breathing for me...
The one thing I found out in having both my parents in my home when they passed, both slipped into a coma about 2 days before they died. And there was no way in he!! I was going to call an ambulance for them...Mother had multiple myloma that had spread to her spinal cord, she was paralyzed from the waist down and had been for several months before she even went into the hospital...She also had the complication of MS....I called the neuro surgeon (he gave me his home number) and the called the funeral home....
For my father I had to call the police first before the funeral parlor would take his body...(different doctor than my mother had) The sheriff's deputies came, went into the bedroom with out me being present...I am sure they checked his body over for signs of foul play, then I called the funeral home...
With many dying not at home, death holds a fear for many. Most die and the majority of the family never see it happen...the hospital or nursing home calls to tell them...
This is what advances in medical treatment has come to and for 99% of the time, it is a God given advance.. For some, dying in the hospital is a lonely thing...For the more fortunate ones, family is present...
For those younger, you fight for life, for us oldsters we know how we want it to be...Of all the people I have seen over the decades only 1 has said, I want everything done even if means machines...for those that is the way it should be...patients choice not governments.
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