Posted on 01/21/2019 4:30:54 PM PST by Kaslin
The wife of a retired periodontist suffering from Alzheimer’s, Dr. Gerald Greenberg, has filed a lawsuit against a New York hospital claiming that doctors violated his last wishes. As the New York Post reports, Mrs. Elaine Greenberg’s husband was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s in his fifties and by the age of 63 was completely disconnected from the real world. But shortly after finding out about his condition and while still in a sound state of mind he had drawn up a living will which effectively established a Do Not Resuscitate (DNR) order. When Dr. Greenberg fell seriously ill and was estimated to only have a few days to live, his wife spoke to the medical team and provided them with the living will.
One doctor ignored those instructions and kept Greenberg alive for more than an additional month, moaning in pain until he finally passed away.
A Westchester County doctor ignored an ailing Alzheimer’s patient’s last wishes by callously prolonging his painful final days, a new lawsuit charges.
“There are times when Gerry was crying. He was not a man who cried, but he was suffering,” Elaine Greenberg told The Post of her retired periodontist husband, Dr. Gerald Greenberg, 63.
Gerald had been diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s in 2010, and by 2016 couldn’t recognize or communicate with his wife and two sons, according to the family’s Bronx Supreme Court lawsuit.
But before being completely incapacitated, the Roslyn, LI, man wrote in a 2011 living will that he was to be given “comfort measures only, no intravenous fluids and no antibiotics,’’ if his condition became incurable, the suit says.
This is a particularly difficult story to write about for me because my mother suffered from advanced dementia and finally succumbed to it, but only after nearly a decade under medical care where she couldn’t recognize any of her family most of the time and couldn’t even communicate toward the end. She had no living will, and we all waited for nature to take its long, painful course.
Greenberg’s case should have been far simpler. I’ve written here on many occasions about end of life issues and I understand why many conservatives are opposed to assisted suicide and other end of life intervention choices. I may not agree, but I understand many of the objections. Personally, I believe that how we choose to face death, fully as much as how we deal with life, is one of the most personal decisions an individual or family can make and the government has no business being involved provided all facilities are competently run.
But Dr. Greenberg and his wife weren’t asking for assisted suicide or an intervention. She simply wanted the doctors to let her husband go as his time had clearly arrived. One doctor took matters into his own hands and denied Greenberg a death with whatever dignity remained to him. This should be considered malpractice in my opinion.
These are hard subjects to tackle, but the majority of us will either have to deal with them ourselves when the time comes or our lives will be touched by others who do. We all make our own choices in life. As free citizens we should be able to make those choices about death as well.
My mother had a similar DNR and they revived her two times and tried to revive her yet another time.
It’s called cha-ching.
She was hooked up to Medicaid, and they were keeping the money flowing.
While this is not good, I would much rather them to be keeping people alive than the other way around. Be careful what we wish for. Life is sacred.
It means if there is a situation occurs that would end life such as a stroke or cardiac event, no heroics or treatment should be undertaken. It does not mean pump the old guy with phenobarbital and morphine until he flatlines. As far as I am concerned, they should rot in H3ll for the implication.
cha-ching and good lab rat for residents to practice on.
My grandmother was an 84 yo DNR with dementia. She fell and hit her head and had bleeding on the brain. They life-flighted (is that the right word?) to another hospital that could better care for her. She died a week later. We’re still trying to figure out the reason for that call.
Very similar experience.
Mom was a frequent flyer from the nursing home to the ER. No matter how many copies of her DNR were posted and in her purse the EMT drive and the nite attendant could not find the paperwork.
The doctor refused to read the living will and other paperwork.
“Personally, I believe that how we choose to face death, fully as much as how we deal with life, is one of the most personal decisions an individual or family can make and the government has no business being involved provided all facilities are competently run.”
One of the most... THE MOST and nobody’s business but my own if I am able to leave anyone else out of it. I believe that suicide is wrong. The life is God’s to take but it is not a doctor’s to give when the end comes. They have played gods too long with lives that have failed.
“One doctor took matters into his own hands and denied Greenberg a death with whatever dignity remained to him. This should be considered malpractice in my opinion.”
In the author’s opinion? It is malpractice. Big time and the guy needs to be sued for enough to hurt really bad and / or lose his license.
Anyone who has not witnessed a loved one die mentally has no grounds for comment. I can only imagine the torture they experience in their scrambled minds but they live a life of frustration, complete fear and loneliness even with people they have loved in close attention. The end is merciful from where I sit. There is no need to push it off.
PS. the collection in the picture of this posting make me sick.
It sounds like he needed a Directive to Physicians to go along with his DNR
My crew and I responded to an old lady who had stopped breathing. The family did not have a DNR so we performed CPR and when the paramedics arrived they gave drugs, she was intubated and shocked. Her heart started beating again. Afterwards my crew was high fiving each other and congratulating themselves.
I pointed out that she was over 90 years old, CPR had broken every rib in her chest, she was intubated, so she wouldn’t be able to talk even if she regained consciousness, and her chances of survival were basically nil. A week later her family disconnected the machines that were keeping her alive.
I saw this same scenario many times. Our protocol did not allow us not to do everything we could to revive someone who did not have a DNR. Most people do not realize how awful CPR is to very old, sick and fragile people. We are not talking about euthanasia, we are talking about delaying the inevitable for someone who is being called to meet their maker. Part of my work was trying to save people, and I participated in some miraculous recoveries that were amazing, but other times it felt wrong in certain situations.
Ironically, the article next to this on the Hot Air Homepage is:
Unreal: 25% of all deaths in Netherlands by forms of euthanasia and suicide
ED MORRISSEY Jan 21, 2019 5:21 PM
https://hotair.com/archives/2019/01/21/unreal-25-deaths-netherlands-forms-euthanasia-suicide/
“while still in a sound state of mind he had drawn up a living will which effectively established a Do Not Resuscitate (DNR) order. “
So many questions and issues.
A living will does not establish a DNR order.
A DNR order does not stop the giving of antibiotics.
Requires two physicians to sign off.
And more.
Try looking up DNR.
It doesn’t say how the doctor kept him alive.
I’ve been through this five times, and will be going through it two more times any day now.
I’ve never had a doctor suggest anything other than comfort care, nor encourage any life extending efforts. Five different doctors.
Hospitals and nursing homes gain nothing by extending this stuff. There is literally no money in it for them. They can easily fill the bed with a patient with money in 24 hours.
I cannot understand their motivation.
DUDE, YOU SHOULD LOOK UP NEW YORK STATUTES AND AG GUIDELINES BEFORE MAKING FALSE ACCUSATIONS!!!!!
You are spot on! DNR is not a green light to withhold care. It means exactly, Do Not Resuscitate from a Cardiopulmonary collapse.
Strokes and dementia are not life ending, resuscitatable events, though one could specify this wish in a living will with; no feeding tubes or IV hydration to prolong life if recovery is deemed unlikely.
Wait until it's your most beloved...it hurts.
You wouldn't do that too a pet (knowing that is not truly analogous, but close).
Wow! A decent man who thinks and reasons and has a soul and kindness. I take it you are retired now.
My Mom is 91 and is so fragile I’m afraid to force her shoes on so I’ve got these big open top things with velcro to protect her feet. They are more like shoe packs.
My hired hand is a volunteer fireman. Some of the things you guys do and witness knock me down several pegs.
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