As many of you know we have been taking care of my mother for the past 3, almost 4 years.She was 98 years old. This past Friday she died and this past Saturday she also died. PLEASE, whatever you do, no matter how hard it is to think about, please get every member in your family to write out and sign a DNR.
Mom developed pneumonia and on Friday was taken in for chest X-rays and a treatment to open up her lungs, something akin to Spiriva. WHen Ellen got her home they wheeled her to the steps leading to the house and then were going to carry her up the three steps. After the first step, she went limp and stopped breathing. Ellen called 911 and 9 min later there were police, and paramedics working on my mother.
Mind you, she had had no oxygen for nearly 10 minutes. Ellen was mom's Health Care Proxy, but my mother had refused to sign an "out of hospital DNR". There were words exchanged and the paramedics spent about 15 minutes on our sidewalk, and another 20 in the ambulance to
"BRING MOM BACK", but she was brain dead. My mother did not want tubes inserted to keep her alive, she wanted nothing more than some drug therapy. Over the years when asked to sign a DNR she would tell the doctors that "the children, Ellen and Billy would know what to do".
They kept this poor brain dead woman alive for an extra day until we could get them to remove all the tubes, which once in place cannot be removed as it would kill the patient. Finally Saturday at a little past 2 they consented to remove the tubes as we found a doctor that was willing to test for signs of life. Once no signs were found we could let mom pass away.
Please, take 10 min out of your lives, write down your wishes as how you want to behandled medically have it signed and notarized and save your family and your self this hell that we went through.(When I say the Hell we went through, please understand mom was brain dead and was on a morphine drip and a mchine with breathing for her, she felt nothing) Please make up a sheet saying to DNR or try everything to bring you back.
It took almost 24 hours for mom to pass away with some dignity. What was laying on that hospital bed was a medical experiment, not my mother.
Sorry for the rant
Bill
Mom developed pneumonia and on Friday was taken in for chest X-rays and a treatment to open up her lungs, something akin to Spiriva. WHen Ellen got her home they wheeled her to the steps leading to the house and then were going to carry her up the three steps. After the first step, she went limp and stopped breathing. Ellen called 911 and 9 min later there were police, and paramedics working on my mother.
Mind you, she had had no oxygen for nearly 10 minutes. Ellen was mom's Health Care Proxy, but my mother had refused to sign an "out of hospital DNR". There were words exchanged and the paramedics spent about 15 minutes on our sidewalk, and another 20 in the ambulance to
"BRING MOM BACK", but she was brain dead. My mother did not want tubes inserted to keep her alive, she wanted nothing more than some drug therapy. Over the years when asked to sign a DNR she would tell the doctors that "the children, Ellen and Billy would know what to do".
They kept this poor brain dead woman alive for an extra day until we could get them to remove all the tubes, which once in place cannot be removed as it would kill the patient. Finally Saturday at a little past 2 they consented to remove the tubes as we found a doctor that was willing to test for signs of life. Once no signs were found we could let mom pass away.
Please, take 10 min out of your lives, write down your wishes as how you want to behandled medically have it signed and notarized and save your family and your self this hell that we went through.(When I say the Hell we went through, please understand mom was brain dead and was on a morphine drip and a mchine with breathing for her, she felt nothing) Please make up a sheet saying to DNR or try everything to bring you back.
It took almost 24 hours for mom to pass away with some dignity. What was laying on that hospital bed was a medical experiment, not my mother.
Sorry for the rant
Bill
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