Comments on: The Cost of Dying
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- People are tend to accept something gives them for free without further consideration. People might say "Anyway I would not get any money back if I choose not to receive all kinds of tests and treatments which may extend my life."
I think if government or hospitals can offer the opportunities for them to choose to donate their end-of-life medicare cost to some charity groups such as Children's Foundation or Red Cross Group, it will be more probable that some dying ones choose their path differently. That would be like re-igniting their lives.
If I were old and dying, but then I can choose to give up my treatment and donate the money for children in Africa who suffer in starvation or other treatable disease, I am sure I will die with joy and peace. It does seem to me that my life has not ended, but extend longer than any treatment could do. - Reply to this comment
- Although the cost issue is important, it is the human aspects that seem to matter most to me. Support for the person who is dying is essential - and that means giving them time to explore the situation and their hopes and fears, not simply a short conversation about whether they wish to be resuscitated. Family members must be supported and gently supported in facing their loss. It seems so cruel to artificially prolong life because this support is not widely available.
I have explored this issue further in my blog at http://cancerfalloutzone.wordpress.com/2009/11/30/end-of-life-care/ - Reply to this comment
- My mother passed away on November 10, 2009. After watching your segment on the Cost of Dying, I could not agree more. As a society, we have forgotten what the term 'quality of life' really means. Now, it is all about the money and the legalities. My mother probably should have passed away five or more years ago. But, due to our medical society's concerns about 'dollars' and its total lack of common sense, she was kept alive much longer. She suffered greatly in the hospitals and emergency rooms, over and over. Finally, her primary care physician (who by the way was never the one treating her in her hospital stays, due to hospital 'rules and regulations' governing emergency room admissions), recommended hospice. Nine days later my mother passed away in what was probably the most peaceful last days of her life. Hind sight is 20-20, but, I know that my family will never again put its loved ones through this type of ordeal again. Those who are dying and those who must stay and grieve, will be better informed and suffer much less pain. I only wish I had been able to do the same for my mother.
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- current practices such as putting brain dead fetuses on respirators and giving illegals 'free' hip replacements are among the things to be nixed.. no 75 year old needs a heart lung transplant or cholesterol drugs...etc etc.. we have to decide as a society when life is used up.. 'expired'.. what ever you want to call it..its a hot button discussion for sure.. but one that IS going to take place.. only large cash deposits will sway the medical community to make you an exception..
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- I am disabled.
Why aren't we talking about the criminal cost of prescription drugs. You mentioned that the cost of the drug Avastin is $55,000, in my opinion, this is why medical cost are out of control. If not for Medicare, I would have to pay close to $100,000 a year on drugs, and most of that is for the pain medication called Actiq, a lollypop made from Fentanyl, a drug that has been around for over 40 years, but the drug company added sugar to it, and thus calls it a new drug to scam the American people.
Shameful. - Reply to this comment
- What Dr. Byock and others are not telling you is that many patients are hastened to their death, i.e., death is imposed when they are not agitated, not even in the intensive care unit. Patients who have a terminal illness do not ask to be killed the moment they enter hospice and they do not wish to be sedated when they are not agitated. But physicians like Byock and Quill are pushing terminal sedation, the permanent sedation of patients until they die. They die because they are not getting fluids, even though they could be walking, talking, eating and drinking. People all over this country are having death imposed upon them by physicians and/or nurses who take it upon themselves to hasten death. Sometimes patients are outright overdosed with morphine and their breathing stops due to opioid overdose, suppression of the respiratory effort.
60 Minutes II did a story about such killings in hospice in their 1998 article, "A Question Of Homicide?" which detailed where 19 hospice deaths were ruled officially as homicides by the coroners and referred for prosecution to the DA, but which was covered up by a special panel of hospice doctors with ulterior motives that ruled all the 19 homicides as "natural deaths."
We at Hospice Patients Alliance hear about such imposed deaths regularly. How would you like it if your loved one was snuffed out in a hospice. Good hospice would never do this, but it is now widespread in the hospice industry. This is the reality Byock is not telling you about. He knows. - Reply to this comment
- I smoke. I have emphysema. I am going to die. I'm NOT going to go to a hospital to do it. I am going to get up, go for a walk, look death straight in the face and say "what took you so long?" I will be high as a kite on as many pain killers as I can get, legally or otherwise. If it appears that I may lose control of my faculties and be taken to a hospital against my wishes, I will take a bottle of pain killers and hide until I AM DEAD. It is the fear of death that is the major problem here. Everyone is afraid to die or to let someone die. God forbid anyone should HELP someone die. Until we, as a species, figure out that death is not the enemy, this will continue to be a problem. Poor quality of life should be the enemy. When my quality of life degrades to the point that I am a liability to the wonderful family I have built and the great country in which I live, I WILL TAKE MY OWN LIFE, if neccesary. What are they gonna do to me? Put my dead body in jail? Fine my wife and kids? I don't think so. So to all you people hanging on by a thread because you are afraid, I say this. Bravery is not the lack of fear. Bravery is being afraid and doing the right thing anyway.
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- I am a primary care provider in Northwest Iowa. I entirely agree that death is inevitable and no one wants his or her loved ones to "die badly" in the ICU. WE need to deliver this message across the entire nation.The way to do it is to have HOSPICE conferences/lectures throughout the country to explain to the American people how to deal with the terminal illness and " to die with dignity and quality" instead of prolonging the dying process with pains and misery for everybody.
We had a HOSPICE conference in this region 2 months ago. About 400 people attended it.As a physician, I am already noticing some positive changes in how people think about the terminal illness and the process of dying. - Reply to this comment
- and the religious nutcases who think life is worth any cost no matter how extreme the medical care are going to have to learn to 'butt out'...
that alone would be a real improvement... - Reply to this comment
