Pensioner 'left to die in hospice after doctors wrongly diagnosed him with cancer'

Mail Online ^ | 12 October 2009 | James Tozer

[underthestreetlite]

UK - A grandfather who beat cancer was wrongly told the disease had returned and left to die at a hospice which pioneered a controversial 'death pathway'. Doctors said there was nothing more they could do for 76-year-old Jack Jones, and his family claim he was denied food, water and medication except painkillers. He died within two weeks. But tests after his death found that his cancer had not come back, and he was in fact suffering from pneumonia brought on by a chest infection

To his family's horror, they were told he could have recovered if he'd been given the correct treatment. Today, after being given an £18,000 pay-out over her ordeal, his widow Pat branded his treatment 'barbaric' and accused the doctors of manslaughter. Mr Jones was being cared at a hospice which was central to the contentious Liverpool Care Pathway under which dying patients have their life support taken away, although the hospice claims it wasn't officially applied in his case. The scheme is now used by hundreds of hospitals and care homes, and is followed in as many as 20,000 deaths a year. Supporters say it brings dignity to a patient's final hours, but critics fear that some are placed into it incorrectly.

[underthestreetlite]

This is the kind of stuff that scares one about government healthcare - What would it be called DC Care Pathway?

[TChad]

The hospice and the doctors who treated Mr Jones continue to deny liability, but his widow has now accepted an £18,000 out-of-court settlement after being told she would otherwise lose her legal aid.

Liberal compassion.

[YHAOS]

Coming soon to a nation near you.

[GeronL]

The British NHS sounds more and more wonderful daily /sarc

[HiTech RedNeck]

This isn’t even lotto ticket justice, let alone jackpot.

[Doctor Don]

A prelude to Obammycare!

[jiminycricket000]

"UK - A grandfather who beat cancer was wrongly told the disease had returned and left to die at a hospice which pioneered a controversial 'death pathway'. Doctors said there was nothing more they could do for 76-year-old Jack Jones, and his family claim he was denied food, water and medication except painkillers. He died within two weeks. But tests after his death found that his cancer had not come back, and he was in fact suffering from pneumonia brought on by a chest infection To his family's horror, they were told he could have recovered if he'd been given the correct treatment."

Dreadful health care and the loss of compassion for the elderly and sick is coming to America, and we can't stop it. I realized once and for all that we are no longer represented in Washington when virtually all of America stood up and shouted to "W" Bush and Congress, "NO AMNESTY FOR ILLEGALS"----- and Bush and the Congress shouted back: "We don't care what you want, it's coming, like it or not, we're going to continue to push it through". But perhaps that's just because we deserve it, sort of like karma. We lost all compassion and love for our own children in the womb, to the tune of 45 million dead, and we are charged to be their protectors. Now government, suppedly our protector, has lost all compassion, respect and love for us all. What goes around comes around; how can God continue to bless us with peace and prosperity under these conditions?

[HighlyOpinionated]

TOLD YOU SO.

Government Health Care Will Be the Death of You, and You, and You, and You, and your Mama and your Daddy, and your Siblings, and me.

Send this article to your favorite CongressCritters . . . even to the Vichy Republicans and the Progressive Democrats.

The USofA CANNOT AFFORD Government Run Health Care.

[EggsAckley]

My Mom died peacefully in her home, facing big picture windows of her beloved garden. Yes, it got worse each day, and yes, it was devastating, but when she finally went, it was very peaceful, and UNASISSTED.

[Flying Circus]

he was denied food, water and medication except painkillers Death by thirst and starvation. What an incredibly miserable and inhumane way to die.

[TChad]

Death by thirst and starvation. What an incredibly miserable and inhumane way to die.

I don't agree, PROVIDED THAT the patient is actually at death's door and is beyond the reach of modern medicine. It is far superior to die that way than under an oxygen tent while under medical assault in a hospital.

While there, however, his family were told the cancer had returned by Dr Alison Coackley, a palliative medicine consultant who played a key role in drawing up the Liverpool Care Pathway.

Dr. Death Panel apparently didn't even order a complete blood count, thereby saving the government a couple of pence.

[Flying Circus]

There is a difference between not treating cancer and leaving a person to starve. Even if this man did have cancer, starvation is still an awful way to go. That fact it was a misdiagnosis just adds to the horror.