Thread: Sentenced to death on the NHS

Sentenced to death on the NHS
Patients with terminal illnesses are being made to die prematurely under an NHS scheme to help end their lives, leading doctors warn today.


By Kate Devlin, Medical Correspondent
Published: 10:00PM BST 02 Sep 2009

In a letter to The Daily Telegraph, a group of experts who care for the terminally ill claim that some patients are being wrongly judged as close to death.

Under NHS guidance introduced across England to help doctors and medical staff deal with dying patients, they can then have fluid and drugs withdrawn and many are put on continuous sedation until they pass away.

But this approach can also mask the signs that their condition is improving, the experts warn.

As a result the scheme is causing a “national crisisâ€

My brother is in the UK. A couple of weeks ago he called to tell me that his ma-in-law had been taken to hospital, diagnosed with a heart attack & given blood thinners. Wrong diagnosis, it was a bleed in the brain which, of course, the blood thinners exacerbated. She was brain-damaged for which they apologised. THey then refused to give her any IV nutrition, even when my sis-in-law begged to give them some time to come to terms with the situation. She died last week.

The funeral is next week & when I commented to my bro that it seemed a long time to wait he replied 'everywhere is booked up, there are a lot of dead people here'.

At least in this country, the family will decide whether to keep a person on life support. With the Schiavo case, the feds decided to interfere (thanks, Jebbie Bush) and it was an absolute court mess.
Whatever bill comes out of Congress, it needs to show that a person's wishes will be respected, and if they have no living will, the family decisions must be considered utmost.