Terrible story about American healthcare

[FireMedic65]

Came across this article from a friend on facebook. Sad story.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/215353

[Happiness]

Your right fire that is a very sad story. I made a promise to my husbands grandfather that he wouldnt die in a hospital as he witness his wife go through a similar situation. I fulfilled my promise and i am glad as this man was a special part of our lives and died as compfortable as possible.

Doing pallative care at home is not for anyone but it you can do it you are truely a special person just as your dr makes your arrival to this world as smooth as possable so should you leaving of the world be as smooth.

Medical systems are falling everywhere and the dyeing dont seem to be a priority which is so sad.

[emtannie]

I agree with you, Happi.

My father did not want to die in a hospital, and we made arrangements for him to die at home. My mother and I took care of him until his passing, which was no easy task, but it was what he wanted.

Too many times I see the health CARE system fail when it is needed the most - at the end of someone's life. People deserve the same respect at the last moment of their life as they got at their first, and so do their families. How did we forget that? Somehow the very system that is supposed to protect them in their weakest moments, abuses them. I see it, and I hate it.

[2wheelinemt]

i so agree with you all

this i have witnessed as many of you first hand and have promised all my loved ones that as long as i am breathing they

will not go into a nursing home to die.

i have been a patient too many times to recall but it has shown me first hand what people have experienced. i have just

came home from the hosp this week and as the grandma in the story i too felt passed around and each time a set of no less

then 5 docs would come in and do the same thing the other 5 docs did. ask the same thing and try and run the test that were

run just prior. i finally put my foot down about these test worried that my ins wouldnt pay for the same test just because!

i dont know where the answer is to stop treatment like this but we need to stop it one patient at a time,

lets stick together and treat each patient as our loved ones. i would want to be home no matter what!

[HERBIE1]

To me, this isn't about American health care, it's about being certain your final wishes are respected. Very specific advanced directives should have prevented this poor woman from being shuffled in and out of hospitals. If she was in hospice, then chemo, radiation, and multiple other tests and treatments should not have happened.

I feel for the patient and the family, but they had options, as we all know, like medical power of attorney. Shame on the doctors for not explaining this to the family.