GLADYS, 93, IS TOLD: IF YOU WANT A CIGGIE, GET OUT THE HOUSE

this is bristol.com ^ | 24 February 2006 | Tom Hobson

[eleni121]

Lighten up...watch 24.

[DouglasKC]

Someone pays 3500.00 a month to die in a nursing home. THEY are paying huge money. Not you. Not buying,......... renting to die. They are more than paying their way to have a smoke,. Not by the dumpster, or outside in 19 degree weather. But, in their 3500.00 a month apt.

A nursing home is signficantly different than an apartment. The whole purpose of a nursing home is that the people in it are incapable of taking care of themselves. They have to be NURSED. Many are in various stages of Alzheimers. The position that you and others have taken is bizzare to say the least.

Where exactly do you draw the line in letting patients smoke inside? Do you want designated smoking times where paid healthcare professionals wheel residents into a room at set intervals, light up their smokes for them and put the cigarettes to their lips? Or do you envision all those bed ridden and wheelchair bound patients pretty much lighting up their smokes in their rooms? Do you draw the line at smoking "freedom" to those who have a certain level of mental capacity? Or do you believe that Alzheimer patients who have forgotten how to use a toothbrush are responsible enough to use matches and cigarettes safely?

Or is it your argument that those who pay money to a private or public institution should be able to make the rules by virtue of the fact that they make payments? Good luck with that one.

[beckysueb]

Yes you are confused.

Whatever.

[boop]

As a medical student I remember my nursing home rotation. There was a guy in a wheelchair who smoked. They kept his cigs, lighter, etc. in the desk, and had a special asbestos bib that they put on him whe he felt like a smoke.