Death American Style

I had prayed that my Dad's care-rationing imposed death was an anomaly- a one off, if you will- but am saddened to find others already in the same boat. Medical futility is being employed at least routinely if not rampantly in the United States to hasten the passing of those whose treatment teams decide to supplant their judgement for God's time clock. If you or your loved one is elderly, chronically-ill, or expensive or complex to treat, beware that the doctor may not do everything or even anything to sustain life. I listened to my Father plead for pineapple juice and a cracker, only to be told that he could not have them as that could cause him to aspirate, I watched his tube feeds discontinued and saw his drip hydration allowed to run dry, and was such a layman to medical procedures that I did not recognize that a covert "DNR" (do not resuscitate order) had been placed on Dad and that the place we had turned to for help when my Father was at his most vulnerable was actually deliberately truncating his life. It will chill you to the bone to read of a similar horror, but if you or someone you love may need to be hospitalized, go to http://holycrosshealth.com to read of Israel Neustadter, a gentleman who had miraculously survived Auschwitz only to be killed because he had become ill at an advanced age by a Maryland hospital.