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Waking up thinking of death.

People have a very unhealthy notion that life support and artificial nutrition is natural. Evidentally strokes don't kill people!... It's evil families who don't trach and PEGs that kill.


America's concept of life and death is not keeping up with the advancements of medical technology, and at some point its going to lead to a crisis point... the so called "death panels". We have the ability now to eek out an extra few weeks or an extra few months past many individuals "expiration dates". 50 years ago, when someone had a massive heart attack, stroke, or metastatic pancreatic cancer the answer was. "I'm sorry there's nothing more we can do." The patient then died, and the family grieved the death of their loved one as natural causes took their family member away.

Fast forward to now... Mom and dad have an identical heart attack or stroke... doctors say, "well, we could let nature takes its course or put a couple of tubes down her and keep her going". Family replies, "well, doc, I can't kill my mom... so lets do everything."

PEOPLE!!! not doing everything does not equal killing!!! the stroke and heart attack do the killing. "Doing everything" effectively doubles, triples, and even quadruples the amount of suffering, and the slows the dying process! Now that they've been trached (breathing tube) and PEG'ed (feeding tube), they can be kept alive! Many families do this at hopes that they will come off the ventilator and make it back to the NH for a wonderfully vibrant and meaningful existence of being turned every two hours... seeing nurses hang a new bottle of tube feed and water. OH! and don't forget about those exciting times where nurses put PRN meds down the feeding tube. Talk about an exciting day! But life after tubes is far from routine! There will be exciting trips to the hospital and maybe even the ICU as all these tubes make people very susceptible to highly resistant infections, so there's never a dull moment!!!

Back to reality. These things cost tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars. With aging of the baby boomers the burden on the medical system and medicare is only going to increase. As therapies get better, we will be able to keep them going longer and longer. Soon, we will all be paying 50% taxes straight into the healthcare system until we can't do it any longer... then the "death panels" will suddenly look necessary, and people will kick and scream.

dngilb md.

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