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.
The ONLY times i’ve Heard of a DNR not be respected is when the proxy doesn’t have it to show the ER staff or paramedics. You call 911, they are not going to give comfort care. If you cannot produce the document and the patient is not conscious, they are going to the hospital trying to revive that patient the whole way.
It is important if you (generic you...not YOU) understand the responsibilities of these things. AND how critical that you understand who can do what in the final days.
While I agree with your, “feelings” it may not be up to you to decide what’s best for each individual.
Did that week allow for distant grandchildren to say goodbye to grandma?
A guess: no one produced the document. You have to produce the paperwork or have it on file with the hospital.
Sorry...emotional...
“I cannot understand their motivation.”
Following NY law.
Do you have any idea what you are talking about?
I’ll consider you don’t so as to provide a reason to dismiss you gently.
Have a nice day.
“Do you have any idea what you are talking about?
I’ll consider you don’t so as to provide a reason to dismiss you gently.
Have a nice day.”
Enough to know that you don’t know what you are talking about.
AS I SAID BEFORE, DO YOUR HOMEWORK ON NY STATUTES AND YOU WILL SEE HOW WRONG YOU ARE.
My daughter is a paramedic. She’s told the same story, several times.
It’s a shame, but she says usually it’s an elderly spouse whi is panicked and lost. Or it is the adult child who ISNT the one with the documents.
She goes to work on them, all the while thinking they are killing the dying person.
But the rules are the rules.
Same situation here - my mother is end stage dementia and her POLST form states comfort measures ONLY! But the night caregiver has called 911 three times in the last year when she has fallen/slid out of bed...no obvious injuries but they insist that the medics transport her and then they call me once she’s on the way. It is infuriating to put her through the stress of being transporting when she has no idea what is happening.
The problem with dementia is that it is a chronic, rather than terminal, condition and so doctors, with their fear of malpractice suits, will continue to treat symptoms as if the patient is going to recover.
The picture of the staff?
That’s a shift change meeting. That is where one shift is telling the second shift who has the best insurance so they can make sure they charge them more.
Or at least that’s what many people think. Here is a clue: if the employee has on scrubs like that, they don’t know what insurance is what, and they don’t care. It’s the ones in street clothes pushing the workstations who will hit you up for a co pay when you are having cardiac arrest!
Your sentiments are beautiful, however, our ability to prolong life beyond what was possible throughout most of human history has created a virtual purgatory for some.
I assume the next step will be a doozy and fear it not.
Then there was this sad DNR case...
Im not saying this is good but we dont know all the details. Im just saying if we are going to hear doctors may not have acted as instructed I would much rather hear they kept someone alive. There is a growing leftist push towards euthenasia of the sick and elderly. Death panels are here and they are on the rise.
Wouldn’t do it to a pet. Right. We treat dumb animals with more respect and dignity than we do elders who are already gone and just breathing, barely.
I’ve been watching interviews with Medal of Honor recipients and old WWII vets. One was a medic in the Battle of the Bulge. He had to administer to one of his best friends. The fellow had been hit with shrapnel. The fragment entered his hip and went into his guts. Not much of an entry wound but it liquefied his insides. He was on fire. The medic, his friend, told him he would be OK and would not hurt much more and gave him a final dose of morphine and held him until he went to sleep. The medic said he would do it all again without hesitation.
The cries against this man in the comments section would raise the roof of any building Sanctity of life and all that. We treat animals better sometimes.
Do we, do I have the right to keep pushing nutrition into someone with advanced dementia so bad they have forgotten how to swallow? Do I have the guts or the right to let them starve? I don’t know today.
Yes, I have a Directive to Physicians and a Power of Attorney to my wife. It is all clearly spelled out. Some DNR's just don't specify exact circumstances. Best to have both and a Power of Attorney to someone you trust. Make sure ALL documents are notarized.
Thank you for your service.
Thankfully I don’t live in NY, never will and never will visit there. NY is of no consequence to me at all. Sounds to me like you have a problem with NY. You should keep to it and keep it there.
I will try to better understand my rights and responsibilities where I am as the result of some of the cautions and examples on this thread.
Medicine, in prolonging a lost cause, has become as cruel and heartless as children who are entertained by making a dead frog jump by stimulating the nerves. People are not a project in a petri dish to be played with.
Dear Heavenly Father...I pray that the FReepers only interested in prolonging my last days, or lecturing me about the law are no where near me when it’s my time.
“Transfer if comfort needs cannot be met in current location.”
I figured it was something like that.
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