[utexaspunk]

My grandfather had Alzheimer's and after several years of accelerating decline, he fell and broke his hip and over the course of another year slowly deteriorated into him being wheelchair-bound and basically catatonic, until he developed a wound which would not heal.

It finally got bad enough that he was moved to hospice. The doctors and nurses at his hospital did not make any sort of suggestions about "helping him along" and it was my wife (whose mother works for a probate/guardianship attorney and has observed the process many times) who suggested that they use the code words to "help him along". My parents and grandmother, ever in denial, would not consider it.

So instead he lay there being given palliative care but no food or drink, only water sponged on his lips to keep them moist, for 2 weeks before he finally died of either starvation or dehydration. It was awful- his urine turned a dark purple and it was like he melted from the inside.

I wish the doctors had been a little more forward about it. There was absolutely no purpose in making him endure that. I can only hope his mind was by then too far gone to suffer, but it sure looked like suffering to me. My wife and I have discussed it and both know that's we would prefer a little help. Sometimes it really is the most humane thing to do.

[edc117]

This is ghoulish. I'm sorry you had to go through that, and it honestly makes me terrified of having to deal with it when my parents pass someday - my father has already had a stroke, and told me he does not want to go through it again, that he would rather be taken off life support and be allowed to pass peacefully. I can't even imagine having to watch someone I cared for starve to death in front of me.

[three14]

One might argue that giving "no food or drink" is simply a crueler version of assisted suicide.

With a lot of these stories, I get the impression that the goal is to reduce the medical professionals' suffering, which may or may not coincide with minimizing the patient's suffering.