Culture Challenge of the Week: Comfort Care

An interesting story from www.HowToSaveYourFamily.com about this deadly medical procedure. This follows this post about the California Senate race. For more interesting stories like this click here to follow this blog.

Culture Challenge of the Week: Comfort Care‏

If you are a regular reader of this newsletter, then you know that most times I discuss ways that "young" parents can strengthen their relationships with their children, grow their faith in God and equip them to tower above the pop culture. But, I'm interested in helping another type of parent too -- the grand and great-grand parents; those who are older, and sadly, now among the most vulnerable in our society.The bottom line is this: We live in culture that does not value all human life equally. After all the years of civil rights struggles, there are still classes of people that don't have equal protection under the law. And, instead of getting better and improving the way we as a nation treat others, we are regressing into a society that is beginning to value only the healthy, strong, and productive. The hard reality is you now have to fight to protect the lives of your many of your loved ones: the elderly, severely disabled, ill, or very young. I've made this topic my Culture Challenge of the Week:
Culture Challenge of the Week: Comfort Care
You’ve probably never heard of Don Holley. But, you should know his name, and you should know how his family said he died: in a San Francisco hospital at the hands of medical staff using a procedure called, "Comfort Care."More and more people are finding that the hospitals they go to for help are becoming the places that permanently put them, or their loved ones, out of their misery. In Don Holley’s case, the hospital he went to for healing morphed into a medical version of the nightmarish "Hotel California," described in the popular 1970s song by the Eagles.I recently wrote in this newsletter about my family’s horrible experience warding off the medical death squad when my dad was hospitalized for a heart attack. We won that battle, and dad went on to live several more years. Many of you responded with nightmare stories of your own; stories of loved ones who were killed by the modern medical culture that has developed the personal belief that many patients are often better off dead, and that is up to hospitals to make sure they are.Don Holley was a 90-year-old man who died in May from choking on a pool of blood caused by medical professionals who were starving and dehydrating him. You can learn more about Holley's death by searching for "Don Holley" at www.kgo-tv.com, but here’s a summary of the report:Mr. Holley entered the hospital after suffering a stroke. Although he was recovering, personnel convinced his neighbor, who had his power of attorney, that Don’s condition was so serious he should be put on what they call, "Comfort Care." This insidiously evil, but lovely sounding procedure simply means you are heavily drugged while you are denied food and water. It is a barbaric way of killing helpless patients who someone has determined aren’t worth bothering with anymore. In Don’s case, oxygen was still administered while his body was shriveling up from dehydration, causing the blood vessels in his nose to burst and bleed into his throat. The hospital staff decided it was too much trouble to continue to suction the blood from his throat, so they let him drown in his own blood while family members stood by helplessly pleading for someone to save him.
I wish Don’s case were a horrible anomaly -- the result of terrible confusion and mismanagement by a bumbling hospital or a crazed, rogue nurse that hates old people. But, not so. He was passively, but systematically, killed by a medical culture that is now more influenced by organizations like the infamous Hemlock Society, which has cleverly been renamed the pleasant sounding "Compassion and Choices," than it is by the time-honored principle to "first do no harm." You must know Don Holley’s story because it just might become your own.How to Save Your Family Members from the New "Comfort" CultureFight for their lives. Fight tooth and nail if you have a hospitalized family member who is being denied basic care, or if you are being pressured to sign documents you don’t understand. Call for free legal help.
You can contact the Liberty Counsel at (800) 671-1776, or by visiting www.lc.org. The organization moves quickly to intervene in situations of emergency. But, don’t wait until an emergency to take action. Become an advocate right now for the most vulnerable among us: the sick, aged, disabled, and very young. They have a right to live. And, when they go to a hospital seeking medical care, they have a right to receive it. We live in a culture where we can no longer assume that hospitals are places of healing and help. There is an evil sweeping our nation that is using very clever, compassionate sounding language to hasten the deaths of people who are inconveniences, or who -- hospitals believe -- don’t contribute to society. Not unlike your worst nightmare or a horror movie, a hospital can quickly morph into the "Hotel California," where "you can check in any time you like, but you can never leave."
The very best place to educate yourself quickly on both the history and recent activities of the death movement is at the website of the International Task Force at www.InternationalTaskForce.org. You owe it to your elderly parents and grandparents -- if you are still blessed enough to have them -- to sit down and have a discussion about how you will be their advocate if the time comes when they are vulnerable and ill. And, although we don't like to think about infant or child mortality, you must also be prepared to fight for the lives of your children should they ever enter a hospital. The bottom line is that patients in hospitals need advocates, and you should vow right now to become a very vocal advocate for your loved ones if they are ever hospitalized. Ask questions. Demand pain control. Sleep in the room to be there to make sure they are getting the care they need. Medical professionals are, by nature, mostly decent people who enter the profession because they care about patients. But, that does not mean they share your principles about the value of every human life. And, in this era of government-run health care, more and more decisions, even about life and death, will be made according to what is expedient. Don't let your family members fall victim.