COMFORT CARE & HOSPICE - YOU NEED INFORMED CONSENT BEFORE YOU AGREE
Comfort Care & Hospice are also spelled "EUTHANASIA".
In the early summer of 1990 we had to face the slow, torturous loss of my Mom to cancer. She had hospice care at home for the last 10 days to 2 weeks. I was so grateful to have the nurses advising me, preparing me with the “typically you will see” type of conversations.
The following year, 1991, we went through it again with her father, my Grandad. Again, the nurses were amazing and a wealth of information.
Then my Dad passed in a hospital in October 2022. All contact regarding his health care decisions were with family not in the same state and he was unable to speak on the phone. We were all very shocked at how quickly he passed after entering hospice, since the decision to move him into hospice care was made on a Friday morning, the trip to see him in person was supposed to happen Saturday. However 2 hours and 45 minutes from the time the paperwork was signed he was gone. To say that we wondered how he could be in the hospital 5 days and be in such bad shape that he was gone so quick.
This is how.
The 7 most important words, “Patient received comfort measures medication per protocol”.
When my husband was being tortured to death in a hospital in October 2021 I was pressured to agree, repeatedly, to a DNR, Do Not Resuscitate and to move him to comfort care. Based on his records it appears they solved their problem with me by just overdosing him on paralytics, apparently that IV push happened as I ran down the hall to his room, responding to the “You need to come to the hospital right now” call.
Because of these experiences it has come as a shock to me to find that some of the words have changed in regards to their meanings since the 1990's. Like the new definitions of so many terms we have found in recent years it's not only a shock it's downright confusing. After discussing this with a lot of people who have lost loved ones in the last 3 years it has become painfully obvious that I am not alone. What none of us realized is that despite the fact that the official definitions have NOT changed the reality is that in practice it is a vastly different thing.
The files of the Covid-19 Humanity Betrayal Memory Project at www.chbmp.org are littered with the accounts of family members who were pressured to move their loved one into “palliative care” or “comfort care”. Didn't we, at one point in time, expect the hospitals to save our loved ones? Isn't that what we learned watching all those televisions shows about good looking, smart, dedicated doctors? It appears that is not the case anymore and it's been headed this way for decades, Covid just made it unavoidable and glaringly obvious.
A prime example was an accidental conversation I had last week with a woman I had just met. During a conversation that started out about “what's going on in America these days” I opened the subject of hospital homicides. With tears in her eyes she recounted that her 89 year old mother had gotten a UTI, been isolated in our local hospital, but after much pleading on her part was finally treated with penicillin for the infection and sent home. Only to have other symptoms, not related to breathing in any way, re-entering the hospital and being isolated again. This time the daughter was eventually told to come visit her mother she would have to agree to move her into comfort care. She was angry, she said she felt blackmailed and coerced, because her mother died not long after her arrival to the hospital and she is suspicious that she didn't naturally pass.
But did the definitions change? Why didn't we see this coming?
First, I chose to look for the definitions of palliative care, comfort care and hospice on both dictionary.com and WebMD.com, comparing to see if there were any vast differences between the actual definitions vs. medical jargon.
Palliative care and comfort care are interchangeable, theoretically it means that the treatment and disease are overwhelming the patient and there is a way to offer the patient supportive care while still treating symptoms. As opposed to hospice care which means that physical and mental care is prioritized and treatments that would normally be used to cure/control the disease are ceased.
NOW, in many cases, these 3 descriptions are just euphemisms for euthanasia.
Dictionary.com
*Also noted as the same as “Comfort Care”.
WebMD.com
Dictionary.com
WebMD.com
In a June 21, 2023 NBC investigative report regarding this push to hospice care in hospitals, reporter Gretchen Morgenson points out that if the doctors/nurses can convince the family to “transfer” their loved one into hospice care, even though the bed and the hospital room don't change, the patient's death is NOT reported as a hospital death. Just like with any retail store, this improves the corporation's “metrics”, making the hospital appear to be a safe place with a lower mortality rate. The dirty little secret is that the hospital's CEO's get healthy bonuses for keeping that mortality rate artificially low.
Another dirty little secret, per that report, is that eventually insurance benefits run out. According to this report, the hospital becomes responsible at that point. Just before that is when the pressure starts. Not to send the patient home, but to “transfer” them to hospice care.
But how did this even start? The United States supposedly has the best medical care in the world, wouldn't a conspiracy of hidden euthanasia be the last thing that would become mainstream?
Ron Panser, B.A., LPN, graduate of Syracuse University spent his life as a pro-life nurse and patient advocate. Mr. Panser now wears the mantle of whistleblower, as he trys to warn everyone about the darkness that has become end of life care. He has followed in the footsteps of Dame Cicely Saunders, promoting care, comfort and support for the dying, allowing them to transition naturally when the time comes. He founded a group in 1998, Hospice Patients Alliance (HPA) to promote the original vision of Dame Saunders. Even though the group was disbanded in 2020, his writings are available on the internet. A list of books and writings is in the “show notes” of this podcast link, from Scott Schara's “Deprogramming With Grace's Dad” (Grace was a victim of euthanasia, too).
I strongly recommend this podcast, Mr. Panser discusses the history of hospice and the multiple name changes as entities merged, allowing the euthanasia movement to take control while society became less and less concerned about the right to life, of all ages. One of the most startling revelations to me was that he estimates that prior to 2020 it is highly likely that as many as 300,000 patients were euthanized per year. Assuming 10 patients per year, per facility, hospital, nursing home, assisted living with providers that attend, short term care facilities, etc., numbering approximately 30,000 facilities times 10 patients per year in America.
The tough part for families is knowing what they are watching happen. In the home setting, where you are taking care of your loved one with occasional visits from nurses you might be in a position to make sure your loved one's wishes are fulfilled without too much chaos. But Mr. Panser warns that things like we have watched during the pandemic are diabolical. An example, the patient is partially sedated, if allowed a drink of water they might choke or cough. Then the attending provider might say well we can't let him/her continue to drink or eat by mouth due to choking. Now you might be facing dehydration, which reduces the fluid volume in the blood, making it increasingly hard for the heart to move. With the heart working harder and harder there might be more sedation added, slowing respiration, hastening death. You are watching believing that this is the regular progression of disease. If you and your loved one choose this, that is your choice, but if you both want a more natural process, you need to be aware and on top of the symptoms and treatments you expect.
The biggest change to the culture and expectations of the medical community came with the passage of the Affordable Care Act. In that particular set of new laws there is an interesting part of the law on page 141, Section 1553 which reads in part:
It is apparent that assisted suicide, euthanasia or “mercy killing” is an expected outcome in enough instances that a carve out had to be written into the bill if the provider caring for the patient refuses to participate there can be no repercussions to the provider.
One of the architects of the Affordable Care Act was Ezekial Emmanuel, an oncologist, bioethicist and current senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, he is a eugenicist who said in 1996, “services provided to individuals who are irreversibly prevented from being or becoming participating citizens are not basic and should not be guaranteed”.
Unfortunately, America is not unique. Both England and Canada have euthanasia programs that are very robust. Former nurse and cancer survivor, Kate Shemirani, has been leading the charge in England regarding the required number of assisted deaths that must be performed in order to qualify for their government bonuses. You can find her commentary on Rumble and YouTube. Canada's Medical Assistance in Dying (MaiD) began in June of 2016. Initially intended to help adults in incredible situations of great pain and potentially facing torturous slow deaths to opt out of life early, it is now morphing into helping the homeless, the mentally ill and depressed teenagers “opt out”.
The point of this article is just to serve as a warning. EVERTHING needs to be spelled out, informed consent for every move made when it is you or your loved one that is facing this question. Is “Comfort Care” or “Hospice” right for me? Will I be in charge of my own decisions for medical intervention? Will I be allowed the time with my loved ones I expect or am I expected to die in time for you to make your dinner date tonight? I prefer to go home, is that going to be allowed? Can I leave right now? (Because “something” always happens in the interim that changes the health outlook and suddenly you will be dying in the hospital). You are now in charge of making sure that you get informed consent for everything. Just because it was once your right doesn't mean that it will be voluntarily given, you might have to fight/advocate for it.
Due to the pandemic, which is still being used as an excuse for killing hospital patients, if you want more proof you can read the stories, watch the interviews and share them from the Covid-19 Humanity Betrayal Memory Project at www.chbmp.org. There are plenty instances of patients being “helped” to leave the hospital in a way that requires a body bag.
Every word of this TRUE
Great article, Cheri! Very informative!