Medical details of stopping food and water for...

[SHRED]

the terminally ill.

Just heard on the Stephanie Miller Show.
She read from a medical journal regarding the terminally ill refusing food and water and the physiological reality if it. How it is NOT painful and a very natural way that animals and humans pass on.
Missed the first part of the read.
Please if anyone knows what she was reading I want a link.

Thanks.

[mondo joe]

1. I wish more DU posters heard it as well.

Or just bothered to learn about it before ranting.

[liberal43110]

2. i know only of the experience of my father...

i had to make the decision 2 years ago to remove the feeding tube for my father. of course, it was a painful decision but i was confident that my dad was suffering so i knew i had to be strong for him. (he was not brain dead or in a persistent vegitative state, but like terri schiavo he could not speak or swallow so he had a feeding tube).

my dad died 6 days after the tube was removed. and it was very, very peaceful. the last 2 or 3 days he was just asleep. and finally he died in his sleep. he just stopped breathing.

after all the suffering he had gone through, i was so grateful that he ended pup dying so peacefully--the way any one would want to die.

[SHRED]

3. yes

The medical description was one of where the blood releases ketones and endorphines for a semi-blissful and painless exit where the organs shut down.
The damned right-wingers are equating it with a healthy person's hunger pains.
Jackasses!

I wish I had a link...anyone?

12. my dad, too

He had cancer. He/we ended all treatment and he was unable to eat or drink. He went very peacefully. Unfortunately, whoever wrote the death certificate entered "malnutrition" as cause of death. This completely undid my mother who felt such guilt.

[Avalux]

4. NEJM abstract

This isn't exactly what you're looking for, but is supportive of the information:

Nurses' Experiences with Hospice Patients Who Refuse Food and Fluids to Hasten Death


Background
Voluntary refusal of food and fluids has been proposed as an alternative to physician-assisted suicide for terminally ill patients who wish to hasten death. There are few reports of patients who have made this choice.

Methods
We mailed a questionnaire to all nurses employed by hospice programs in Oregon and analyzed the results.

Results
Of 429 eligible nurses, 307 (72 percent) returned the questionnaire, and 102 of the respondents (33 percent) reported that in the previous four years they had cared for a patient who deliberately hastened death by voluntary refusal of food and fluids. Nurses reported that patients chose to stop eating and drinking because they were ready to die, saw continued existence as pointless, and considered their quality of life poor. The survey showed that 85 percent of patients died within 15 days after stopping food and fluids. On a scale from 0 (a very bad death) to 9 (a very good death), the median score for the quality of these deaths, as rated by the nurses, was 8.

Conclusions
On the basis of reports by nurses, patients in hospice care who voluntarily choose to refuse food and fluids are elderly, no longer find meaning in living, and usually die a "good" death within two weeks after stopping food and fluids.

http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/abstract/349/4/359

[BrklynLiberal]

5. If it means anything at all..it is what animals do in nature. When they

are old, sick or injured, they find a place to go off by themselves, and die alone. They stop eating and drinking. And that is how it ends.

NOMINATING

[Kurovski]

6. A doctor once told of how his own mother

left this way when all medical hope was gone, and life was all horrible pain.

it is a natural way to go when the body breaks down. It's how we were created. And despite what some seem to think, the creator can be quite merciful.

[Dr Ron]

7. More information on this here:

http://www.lightupthedarkness.org/blog/?view=plink&id=588

The post contains an article from the NY Times on effects of stopping food. Comments include a link to an article from the New England Journal of Medicine

[Ilsa]

8. The RWer's are confused.

They are confusing the torture at GITMO and Abu Ghraib with hospice care.

Geez, to hear them describe TS's situation, you'd think the hospice staff had wheeled her out into the middle of the Mojave Desert for plenty of sun to go with it.

[SHRED]

9. Exactly

Part of the BS propaganda that they spew non-stop.

[sonicx]

10. yup

Experts: Schiavo's Death Would Be Peaceful

NEW YORK - If Terri Schiavo dies from the removal of her feeding tube, her passing should be peaceful, experts say.

After all, she is in a persistent vegetative state without conscious awareness, they noted.

But studies show that even patients who can speak and who have chosen to stop eating and drinking generally don't complain of thirst or hunger, said Dr. Russell Portenoy, chair of palliative care at the Beth Israel Medical Center in New York.

"It's as if the body has a protective mechanism at the end of life, such that loss of appetite and loss of thirst precede the dying process," he said.

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050322/ap_on_re_us/brain_damaged_woman_dying_1

[goodboy]

11. CONSCIOUS creatures stop eating and drinking before they die, including

(and don`t take this the wrong way,) I`ve had pets (again, conscious, and aware) that`ve stopped eating and drinking before they died.

It is natural, and painless.


on edit: Terri is not aware, not conscious, unable to feel sensation. And the part of the brain that is still functioning will follow the `design` of the dying process.

[kikiek]

13. You are right. I am a hospice nurse and stopping eating and drinking

is natural. Also we use drugs if there is any sign of discomfort. In her case it is doubtful she is needing any. She feels nothing according to her brain scans.

[bluedog]

14. my dad had cancer also

the last thing he wanted was V-8 juice...hospital didn't have it.had to run to store.he had a small sip and didn't want more.he wanted to have his bed raised higher and higher.and he started to smile.then in a blink he closed his eyes and was gone........

[kikiek]

15. It is a special time in our lives. It is wonderful you were there

at his side. We took care of my father at home also when he died of cancer. We need to maintain the right to not treat or stop treatment according to our beliefs. Everyone has their own opinion of what quality of life is, and only we should be able to choose. I believe her husband knows.

[deadparrot]

16. Just like doctor after doctor has said...

I'll trust the word of studied professional over hysterical fundies any day.

[bush_is_wacko]

17. I couldn't agree more! And it is clear to me that those of us who have

had the strength to make the right decision ALL agree that it is a very peaceful and natural death! I truly believe that every person complaining about this has either never watched it or has watched it as is truly sadistic in nature to keep putting Terri through this hell!

15 years of limbo is long enough! Godspeed and rest in peace Terri!

[liberal43110]

18. While I don't feel sorry for the Schindlers because of their reprehensible

behavior....I do feel sorry that they aren't experiencing this the way so many others (myself included) do when someone they love is dying in hospice.

Read the stories that have been posted in this thread. The last days of someone's life can be loving and life-affirming. Instead, these people are having press conferences and court appeals. And they are angry, hateful, and denying the truth and reality of the situation. They could be loving Terri, and loving each other, honoring her life, and giving her dignity.

Here are the details of my dad's hospice experience after we removed his feeding tube:

Dad went to hospice when the feeding tube was disconnected. My dad's living will actually said that he did NOT want food and water withheld. So we could disconnect the feeding tube (which was also giving him something like 50 medicines) but the hospice nurses had to offer him juices. He couldn't speak or swallow (but he was very much conscious and aware, unlike Terri Schiavo), but the nurses offered him juices.

It was wonderful to watch him with the juice!!!!!! He got into hospice in the afternoon, and the move was tiring, so he slept the rest of the day. The next morning I visited him, and there were 2 cartons of juice on his bedside table, with straws. I guess the nurses had been squirting strawfuls of juice into his mouth. When I got there he wanted to hold the carton himself. The juice just spilled over his mouth and face and onto his chest!!!!! I don't even know if he could swallow it or not. That wasn't important. It was so wonderful to see him get to have some liquid in his mouth--it had been almost 3 months for my dad with no food or water in his mouth--think how terrible that would feel--just the small sensory of having some juice.

After that first morning, he didn't really want any more juice. He was only awake another day or so. Then he was asleep for 2 or 3 days. And then he very peacefully died. Just stopped breathing in his sleep.

Hospice was wonderful. I am so grateful. I even got to bring dad's dog in to see him!!!!!!!