The Goat Pen

AlabamAlum wrote:I haven't had a lot of that in my 30 or so years in hospitals. I guess it happens, though.

my point of reference is Kentucky - my sis-n-law is an ER nurse

i tend to agree with ecat

and i would rather be put in a morphine induce coma then get a 1 in a milllion treatment that might extned my suffering another few months

I'd like to go out on a morphine drip. It would be a very peaceful way to go...

We can help you

hedge wrote:I'd like to go out on a morphine drip. It would be a very peaceful way to go...

I saw it first hand - it definitely relieves suffering

My dad went out that way.

All I can say is we never did that in hospitals I ran. And we lost hundreds of millions on 'self pays' (which means 'no pay') over the years.

I was the guy in charge of the ethics committee (shocking, I know), as well as the operating budget for many years. Our MDs weren't hospital employees and didn't give a shit if the hospital lost money (they did want to avoid potential lawsuits, though), and we had enough whistle-blower activist RNs to make an overt attempt at something like that impossible - even if that was the route we wanted to go financially. In other words, our wealthy were just as likely to have heroic measures ceased as our homeless in cases where there was no or little hope. But that's a vignette into my own little world.

You never put anybody on a morphine drip that allowed them to drift off in peace at your hospital? That's not the one I want to go to for my last days...

Sure we did, hedge. But not due to their financial status.


It was different in the ED. Those physicians are our employees (through contract, anyway) and did act as gatekeepers. But once assigned to a primary (who is essentially a private contractor), and admitted, we owned the patient.

I know those damn catholics at Good Sam don't believe in anesthesia for women during birth. Started pushing natural child birth during the classes we took and then was acting like it was heroin during the delivery.

Heh. Go and try to have a D&C at Good Sam. Good times.

I would think most people in need of a morphine drip send-off would be on medicare...

Most? Perhaps. But Medicaid is about a quarter above 'no pay' though.

Speaking of morphine drip send-offs, check this out (from wikipedia page of King George V, the current monarch's grandpappy):

"By 20 January, he was close to death. His physicians, led by Lord Dawson of Penn, issued a bulletin with words that became famous: "The King's life is moving peacefully towards its close." Dawson's private diary, unearthed after his death and made public in 1986, reveals that the King's last words, a mumbled "God damn you!", were addressed to his nurse when she gave him a sedative on the night of 20 January. Dawson wrote that he hastened the King's death by giving him a lethal combination of morphine and cocaine. Dawson noted that he acted to preserve the King's dignity, to prevent further strain on the family, and so that the King's death at 11:55 p.m. could be announced in the morning edition of The Times newspaper rather than "less appropriate ... evening journals"."

jolly good show by the Dr., eh what?

"And we lost hundreds of millions on 'self pays' (which means 'no pay') over the years

how many hospitals actually go under a year. many more in texas then anywhere else I imagine

my concern regarding Ebola isn't that it will spread in the United States but that central America will be hit with it which will carry into Mexico and we're going to see some World War Z shit at our border

It will NEVER happen....just move along.

Why do St. Louis cops hate the African Americans?

as opposed to other cities?