Keith Olbermann Special Comment PT. 1: 'Last Friday Night My Father Asked Me To Kill Him'

[Hissyspit]

Run time: 09:11 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fse0wzkd-zQ   Posted on YouTube: February 25, 2010 By YouTube Member: Views on YouTube: 0   Posted on DU: February 25, 2010 By DU Member: Hissyspit Views on DU: 3914

 
MSNBC Countdown w/ KEITH OLBERMANN - 24 February 2010: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/2/24/840433/-A-Special-Comment-From-My-Father

PART 2 IS HERE: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x437610

Special Comment From My Father
by Keith Olbermann

Wed Feb 24, 2010 at 05:24:33 PM PST

Last Friday night, my father asked me to kill him.

This is not the central fact around which tomorrow's health care summit at Blair House will, or should, revolve. But I'd like it on the record somewhere that I asked all those going there, including the President, to think more about people like my father - patients, in our hospitals, at this moment - and less about elections and political points and "crashing the party."

Keith Olbermann's diary :: ::

This is hastily composed while our show is delayed by what I was told was impossible (a time out, during Olympic Curling Overtime - as I asked, "a time out from WHAT?")I did not have time, between events at the hospital and here, to prepare an early diary, but now the fates (or the stones) have fallen in just the right order in Vancouver.

I'm focusing on one thing in tonight's Comment. The night my father asked me to stop his treatment:

I get his attention again. I ask him: do you want me to stop all of this? And he looks at me and mouths "yes." And I ask him: you understand what happens then. And he looks at me and mouths "yes." And I ask him: you realize you are not terminally ill, and if we do stop all of this, it might not be quick. And he mouths "stop this." And I say, trying to joke him out of it -- and trust me, gallows humor is your best defense in this situation -- "what? You want me to smother you with a pillow?" And he mouths "yes - kill me"...

And as I left that night the full impact of these last six months washed over me. What I had done, conferring with the resident in ICU, the conversation about my father's panicky, not-in-complete-control-of-his-faculties demand that all treatment stop, about the options and the consequences and the compromise - the sedation -- the help for a brave man who just needed a break... that conversation, that one -- was what these ghouls who are walking into Blair House tomorrow morning decided to call "Death Panels."

Your right to have that conversation with a doctor -- not the government, but a doctor -- and your right to have insurance pay for his expertise on what your options are when Dad says "kill me" or what your options are when Dad is in a coma and can't tell you a damn thing, or what your options are when everybody is healthy and happy and coherent and you're just planning ahead -- your right to have the guidance and the reassurance of a professional who can lay that out for you... that's a quote "death panel."

That, right now, is the legacy of the protests of these sub-humans who get paid by the insurance companies, who say these things for their own political gain... or like that one fiend... for money.

For money Betsy McCaughey told people that this conversation about life and death and relief and release, and also about no, keep treating him no matter what happens, until the nation runs out of medicine... she told people it's a death panel and she did that... for money.

It's a life panel.

A life panel -- it can save the pain of the patient and the family -- it is the difference between you guessing what happens next, and you being informed about what probably will, and that's the difference between you sleeping at night or second-guessing and third-guessing and thirtieth-guessing.

And it can also be the place where the family says 'we want you to keep him alive no matter what, we believe in miracles' and the doctor saying yes. Nobody gets to say no except the patient and the family.

It's a life panel. And damn those who call it otherwise to hell.

[MindandSoul]

1. I just watched it. . . . Powerful!

[Rozlee]

2. Thank you, Keith.

[1776Forever]

3. The older I get the more I can relate - Although I know it has nothing to do with age.

My 40 year-old son who has Progressive MS has a terrible time. I pray daily for him but being with him when he has his worst days has changed the way I look at chronic illness. My son is my hero and he is and always will be one of the most courageous people I know but I could not blame him at times thinking that if this is all there is he can't continue. Blessings to Keith and his Dad.

[MrMickeysMom]

4. Thank you Keith...

This was needed. I've been that respiratory therapist time and time again in many such situations. Plus, I had to be that patient voice for my mother's management before her death.

No, it is NOT easy, but nothing really worth doing like this IS.

Keith Olberman, I love your enormous head, mind and most of all, your heart! :cry:

[gtar100]

5. This is incredibly heart wrenching.

It really brings into focus the wretchedness of these people who use words like "death panel" and fight against the basic human *NEED* for health care. I have a friend who's father suffered a stroke, while just hanging out with the family one evening. He's been in the hospital and long-term care facilities since - over 15 months ago. He's no longer able to talk or move half his body, pneumonia is a constant threat, but his eyes reveal a man who is still very much alive inside. My father is now 83 years old today, has beat cancer three times, recovered from a mild stroke and is now writing The Alzheimer's Quartet with Finale on a Mac in between puffs on his nebulizer. That's chutzpah and a sense of humor in the face of life's terrible end-of-life demons. And to think of these jackasses with their stupid signs about "obama care" and all that bullshit screaming about fictitious "death panels", it's enough to pull the plug of compassion and respect for their own existence of which they hold in such contempt.

[glinda]

6. I cried

[orleans]

7. my mother asked me to kill her

she didn't go through six months like keith's dad did. never had her colon removed. instead she went into the hospital one afternoon and we discover (several days later) that the colon cancer we never knew she had had spread. she was dying. and she didn't want chemo, and surgery wasn't an option. it hit both of us like a ton of bricks.

and she asked me to kill her. several times. and not because she was in pain. but because she couldn't take being trapped there, suddenly bedridden, suddenly being poked and tested and the mental and emotional stress. and that they told her she was dying. and the difficulty she was having breathing--more and more--and didn't want any extraordinary measures taken.

two weeks after going into the hospital, before we could get her home for hospice (hospice! she was doing really good until that afternoon i called 911) she got her first dose of morphine to ease the stress and make breathing easier.

and two weeks and one day after first going to the hospital my mom--my love--my strength--my best friend--passed from this world as my daughter and i held her hand.

my daughter arrived one and a half hours before my mom passed on. my mother looked up into my daughter's face and smiled. my daughter was my mother's last smile.

this was near the end of october of last year. i am still so utterly devastated by this it is unbelievable. i was sobbing and sobbing as i listened to keith talk about his dad. and those words: help, help, help. those were the words of my mother as well. only she also added the words "hurry" and "quick!"

it's the hardest thing in the world to say goodbye for a final time--a final time for this world. and once you do nothing is ever the same again.

i told my mom it was okay for her to let go, that everything would be okay, and that somehow i would find her again.

but in the meantime, i hurt so bad, i miss her so terribly...

we watched keith's show (and rachel's) every night together. she felt so bad for him when he talked about his dad being sick--she was worried for both him and his dad. i know she would feel very sad about the news keith brought tonight.

i really haven't posted much since last october. but because so many of keith's words tonight were so much more than a distant bell, i thought i would finally come out and say something.

[Hissyspit]

12. Good to hear from you again, orlean.

Thanks for sharing that. I hoped it helped some.
Condolences.

[Hissyspit]

16. "orleans" sorry for mistype nt

[niyad]

14. I am so very sorry to hear this. please accept my deepest sympathies on your loss.

[Love Bug]

23. I'm so sorry, orleans

I lost my mother to alzheimer's in 2002 and watched her slip away slowly over time. No matter how they go, either quickly or not, it's still very hard. I know it's all still very raw for you but in time you will learn to cope.

My deepest condolences.

[Love Bug]

24. You're a good son, Keith

What an ordeal. I don't know if you ever visit DU or if your staff does, but if they do, I hope they pass on to you all of the good wishes for you and your father from us. Many of us here have had to deal with these kinds of issues with our parents, too, and we understand where you are right now.

Keep fighting the good fight and the very best to you and your family.

As for those who play with people's lives for political gain: may you get twice as much as you wish for us.

[orleans]

27. thank you. n/t

[Bitwit1234]

8. It won't be allowed BUT

What we should do is wheel some of those patients who are able, into that "SUMMIT" TOMORROW and let them speak about Health Care. About the treatments and non-treatments that the insurance companies deny. And then compare them to cheney and his preferred treatment. Cheney who has health care provided by the government and US the taxpayer. And say wouldn't it be nice if our father, our mother and our relative had that luxury, for luxury it is in most cases. Something for the rich. Poor and some middle class need apply.

[demodonkey]

9. This is what I have been going through since January 6, 2006.

My mother, thank God, has been alert and aware and fully capable of self-direction since she had her stroke on that day. She has original Medicare, and very very good supplemental insurance.

And even before the stroke we HAD "that" conversation, many times, so we each know what the other wants "when the time comes." In my mother's case, as long as there is any hope for a life she wants all the care and therapy she can get, so she can get back to as normal as possible. She NEVER wants to be warehoused permanently in a nursing home. NEVER.

For four years I have fought tooth and nail to get her everything insurance will cover and have been a fierce advocate for her. She is now at home, here, in the other room, watching the Olympics and enjoying her life.

My thanks for doing this for my mother is that one of the despicable hospitals she was in pursued getting a guardianship against her to try to take away her right to self-direction and remove me as her chosen decision-maker, so they could warehouse her in the nursing home of their choice.

Fortunately the hospital was unsuccessful because my mother is not incapacitated. So last month, the hospital instead decided to sue us -- me included because I am the caregiver -- for money we should NOT owe for "care" of my mother in their worthless facility while this fraudulent guardianship was pending and they held her more or less hostage. ("Care" which STILL could and should have been covered by her insurance.)

Because of the blizzards earlier this month (and the fact that the hospital's attorney put a non-working phone number and a wrong zip code on his complaint as his contact information), we missed a deadline and it now appears that this "non-profit" hospital has obtained a judgement against us. It will, in all probability, take our home, and a property that has been in my family for three generations will be gone for about 100 days of worthless "care".

Unless I can get some help and assemble a legal team of lawyers who care and want justice, this will stand and the hospital will in all probability throw my mother and me into the street (which will kill her at age 92, and maybe me too.)

And there -- THERE is your death panel.

There is more, but that's all I can say right now. Except I agree with Keith. These insurance ghouls and hospital bean counter ghouls and lawyer ghouls, and lawmaker ghouls; they ALL need to do the right thing and HELP. Help people and do it now. HELP HELP HELP.

I wish Keith and his father well, and I so, so, so feel for what Keith is dealing with.

WATCH THIS VIDEO. BOTH PARTS. It's a must-see.

[niyad]

13. you need to send your story to keith, and rachel, and ed right now.

what is happening to you is an obscenity. have you contacted the local media? aclu? gray panthers? is there an ombudsperson in your area?

don't know who your reps are--but contact them as well (even if they are useless repukes)

best of luck in this horrible situation.

[demodonkey]

22. Thank you... this is all strategy we would like to do but it is all so.....

...overwhelming right now. I am doing my best to write the story up and first and foremost to get legal help to challenge the judgment, to get my mother's friends to help her by getting a legal defense-medical expense fund going (because we have no $$ left for lawyers), and then YES get it out to the media so it doesn't happen to someone else who might be able to avoid it.

THANKS again!

[northofdenali]

10. Mom is 97 now.

She signed a "DNR" when she was in her 70's. I am 5000 miles away, and I dread to think what will happen unless she passes at home in bed.

And DAMN the fucking Repukes who would deny her that option.

No, she has no "home health care". She can't afford it, and is fortunately well enough to function without it. Right now. Tomorrow? Maybe not.

I lived with my father-in-law through 10 years of increasing debility from Alzheimer's AND blocked carotid arteries, causing dementia. He was bedridden his last 8 months. He died here, at home. Why? Because we could not afford home health care during the Alzheimer's, I quit working to stay home and care for him. It was worth it - except that I was "out of the workforce" and now can't find a job. We took no vacations, no days off from his care. For 7 years, no time off. None. His Medicare and State retirement insurance didn't cover enough - and he was retired from the "wealthiest state in the union" - Alaska (Federal Bureau of Roads, then State Dept. of Transportation). His "medicare supplement" died when his wife did - he "made too much money" on his retirement to qualify.

We are so far in hock from my disease and my husband's heart attack in '07 that we are going to lose everything. I was hospitalized - not in my town, because they had no idea what was going on - and had to be medevaced to the "big city" - Anchorage. Ditto when my husband had his heart attack. It couldn't be treated here in Fairbanks (2nd largest "city" in Alaska) but had to be flown to Anchorage. Each flight (about 45 minutes but 8 hours to drive)? $18,900. EACH FLIGHT.

Our insurance paid $500.00 per flight.

Medicare for all. Period.

[DearAbby]

11. !

[mfcorey1]

15. This just ripped my heart

wide open...Keith is a strong man to even be able to deliver that report.

[Chemical Bill]

17. Goddess bless KO. n/t

[Stuart G]

18. Yes, one of the best, if not the best..Why?

This is so personal, honest, and correct that you feel that Keith is talking to you. It is about his father and his deepest faith and love for him. And how that love and faith tie in to his caring for others. Finally that ties into the current political debate about how to pay for health care.

In a way, this is different from the first one about Rumsfield, or nine eleven . This central them is love, and politics is second. But because Keith does not have to worry about paying for this care, it is all about love and care, rather than how to pay for it, which is what the situation would be if his father did not have medicare.
Finally, his father's crisis at the end brings us closer to him and his love for his father.

Keith opens himself up to us by telling us his feelings about his struggle with his father's illness, and he touches us.

This 13 minutes is truly great. Thanks for posting it.

Watch it all at once here his website...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036677/

[Stuart G]

19. Please take the time to watch this comment. It will touch you. nt.

[greiner3]

20. His best rant in a while;

Just saying.

[Moonwalk]

25. His best rant ever, I think. Magnum Opus, and he did his father proud--

--Now it's up to us to make sure it gets shown and shown again. Everywhere we can show it, to everyone we know, and most of all to those who don't want to hear it.

[hmorehead]

21. Some FOX twit will comment on this. One more reason to deport Murdoch.

[RoccoR5955]

26. K & R... this is a MUST SEE! n/t