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Thread: The Saddest Thing I Ever Had To Do

  1. #21
    Member Extraordinaire hppygr8ful's Avatar
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    Wink You know I just had to step into this one!

    Quote Originally Posted by cougarnurse View Post
    This may be an old thread, but anyone out there have something to add?
    Medical ethics are going to go vitually out the window as healthcare reform is ushered in. The United Kingdom (England) system is full of stories of cardiac patients being turned out to die at home with nothing but directions to take Tylenol for pain.

    I currently have a 58 year old patient hospitalized with compression fractures of her spine. She is developmentally disabled and I had her to several different doctors who refused treatment based solely on the fact of her developmental delay. The wisdom of their decision is that she is somehow less worthy of care as she may only have limited benefit from any treament (Huh - sounds a bit like health care rationing to me) . But for the fact that a prominant neurosurgeon at a teaching hospital took an interest in her case she would be getting no care at all.

    Why are people with developmental delays considered less worthy of treatment? Are they not human? Do they not feel pain? Do they not bleed. This person has medicare and medicaid but neither will authorize testing to rule out underlying disease because as the denial letter states she is not a good candidate for successful treatment. I guess we are just supposed to leave her in a bed in pain and let her die.

    Beware of what you wish for - with healthcare reform will come a new definition of medical ethics where the cost of care will be a huge consideration when deciding what treatment will be done - if we think the current system is bad just wait. Remember Obama himself was quoted to have said "why do a bunch of expensive tests and treatments that may not work when it might be just as effective to give a pain pill."

    Peace and Namaste

    Hppy

    Oh I have a headache

  2. #22
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    The saddest thing I ever had to do was to retire an old set of Golf Clubs. That just broke my heart

  3. #23
    Member Extraordinaire hppygr8ful's Avatar
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    Last year I had to put down my 28 year old dog. I know 28 is one old dog! That would be almost 200 for a person. She really wasn't living anymore just wasting away.I know it was the right thing but she was my best friend for so long through so many things. There's a saying that old dog never really die they just fade away.

    Peace and Namaste

    Hppy

  4. #24
    Senior Member suebird3's Avatar
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    I hear you, Hppy. I had to do the same thing with our 18 1/2 year old dog. The vet had said he'd have never believed the dog's age, except he'd taken care of Barney from the time we brought him home as a puppy. We'd buried him at home in the back yard, which was his favourite area. God, it'll be 20 years this May.

  5. #25
    Ricu
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    The saddest thing that I regularly do is facilitate the last few minutes of an individuals life when (s)he is least able or prepared for it and neither are the loved ones. Usually they have no idea how sick they they were with say, stage IV carcinoma or endstage cardiac failure, because the providers were misleading so they are utterly shocked when no more treatment can be offered. No, there really are no more rescue chemo treatments to take and, no a pacemaker will not make a failed myocardium contract and a bypass will not help either. This information is delivered by the intensivist who they don't know and nurses who they never met take care of them in probably the most intrusive environment they ever will see. If it goes well, we withdraw support in favor of palliative comfort care and their suffering ends. Often they go down in a blaze of aggressive treatment; hardly glorious. In the end we, not the physicians, sit with the family and help them begin to put the pieces together.

    R

  6. #26
    Member Extraordinaire hppygr8ful's Avatar
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    I'm with you R. I think the truely saddest thing I ever had to do as a nurse was to hand a deceased infant to his father's arms after a crash c-section that was just to late. The baby was perfect in every way, full term all the fingers and toes in the right place. Mom had a placental abruption and we had a heartbeat right up to the first cut - but he had bled out before we could do anything. Almost lost the mom as well.

    It's a truely humbling experience.

    Peace and Namaste

    Hppy

  7. #27
    Ricu
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    [QUOTE=hppygr8ful;135131]I'm with you R. I think the truely saddest thing I ever had to do as a nurse was to hand a deceased infant to his father's arms after a crash c-section that was just to late. The baby was perfect in every way, full term all the fingers and toes in the right place. Mom had a placental abruption and we had a heartbeat right up to the first cut - but he had bled out before we could do anything. Almost lost the mom as well.

    It's a truely humbling experience.

    Peace and Namaste

    Thanks, Happy. Oddly enough we've got that in common, almost. A few years ago, we had a mother with an amniotic fluid embolism go into cardiac arrest- IN THE TUB!. Had to pull her out with dad in there rubbing her back, very unceremoneously put her on a bed and section her right in front of him. I got to do the compressions all through the case while a perfect, albeit slightly blue boy was delivered. The circumstances were tragic enough but it was torture to listen to dad sob uncontrollably in the room knowing his world was falling apart right in front of us. Everyone was focused on keeping maternal perfusion going and rescuing the baby and there was nobody to spare for him. Obviously this was a worst case scenario and it went well, but I think important lessons about delegation and prioritization were learned that day.

    R

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