On Mon, 18 Apr 2011 19:55:59 -0700, "Califbill"
wrote:

"Boating All Out" wrote in message
...

In article ,
says...

Reply:
We should actually have some death panels. My mom's good friend Betty a
few
years ago. She was almost 95, congestive heart failure, and they put her
in
the hospital and spent over $63,000 in hospital billing alone to prolong
her
life 5 days. Make her comfortable and let her pass, would have been a
much
greater service to her and to the taxpayers. May sound cruel, but Gov.
Roamer of Colorado fame, stated it correctly, a lot of the old should
leave
the living to the younger set. My mom passed away in November. She would
have been ****ed if we went to heroic measures to prolong life. She was 3
weeks short of 96 years, and a retired RN. She figured her life span had
been run. Not really living at that age and condition.

It's a dicey proposition prolonging life.
The doctors and hospitals make big bucks and don't really want to make
the decision anyway.
The problem is most often family members making the decision.
Four kids will want their mom to just pass away, but the fifth
will feel differently and lay a guilt trip on the others.
Saw this recently with an aunt.
She's 87, senile but otherwise normal. Gets around well.
You can talk to her but she won't remember anything about it 10 seconds
later. She'll ask you same small talk question repeatedly.
But she can smile and still laugh at a joke.
Who can say if she's ready to go? No way to get in her head.
Who wants to ask her is it's time to die? Nobody.
So she recently felt low and the cousin caring for her took her to the
hospital.
Spent a week there and ended up with a pacemaker and drug prescriptions.
Cost tens of thousands. Medicare of course.
A couple of my cousins told me they wished the one taking care of her
had just told her to get in bed if she felt low, and if her heart wasn't
good enough to keep her alive, she would die.
I sure don't have the answer, but I tend to agree with them.
Some fight life's last breath, others rush to it.
They should make their own decision, but often don't unless asked.




Reply:
If you want to go to heroic measures to prolong a lost life, pay for it out
of your money. the hospital will not suggest letting them die, as they will
get sued for big bucks. So easier and cheaper to prolong the lost life.

So, then you agree that there should be end of life counseling for
people in that situation. To make it really effective, the time a doc
spends doing that should be reimbursable, but of course the right wing
teabaggers couldn't have that. That's a "death panel" according to
Bachmann, Palin, Rush, Beck, etc.