Saturday, February 6, 2010
Swedish Futility Conflict -- Baby Malin
Similar to the ongoing Baby Isaiah case in Edmonton, Alberta, a case in Lund, Sweden is now unfolding. The physicians for two-month-old Malin planned to turn off her respirator against her parents' wishes. The physicians had concluded that the life-sustaining treatment was useless because there was no activity in the infant's brain. But the parents, Anna Månsson and Christian Fryding, explained: "We realize how badly injured she is, but we are at this stage not prepared to accept that they are stopping." "How can one know that a baby's brain can not develop?
While the hospital's medical director claims that the physicians can legally unilaterally refuse this treatment, the doctors have sought the views of specialists and had discussions with the Ethical Council of the Skane Region. They would like the discontinuation to be consensual. The parents are looking for contacts with specialists who are not linked to the children at the Intensive Care University Hospital. (KVP 1; KVP 2)
While the hospital's medical director claims that the physicians can legally unilaterally refuse this treatment, the doctors have sought the views of specialists and had discussions with the Ethical Council of the Skane Region. They would like the discontinuation to be consensual. The parents are looking for contacts with specialists who are not linked to the children at the Intensive Care University Hospital.
Six Great New "Fast Facts" on End-of-Life Communication
One significant value of the EPERC site (a RWJF project that shares educational resource material among the community of health professional educators involved in palliative care education) is the Fast Facts and Concepts bulletin edited by Drew A. Rosielle MD.
Six new fast facts are now available, all by David E. Weissman, MD, Timorthy E. Quill, MD, and Robert M. Arnold, MD:
Six new fast facts are now available, all by David E. Weissman, MD, Timorthy E. Quill, MD, and Robert M. Arnold, MD:
- #227 The Family Meeting: End of Life Goal Setting ...
- #226 Helping Surrogates Make Decisions
- #225 The Family Meeting: Causes of Conflict
- #224 Responding to Emotions in Family Meetings
- #223 The Family Meeting: Starting the Conversation...
- #222 Preparing for the Family Meeting
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Top 50 Hospice Care Blogs
Top 50 hospice care blogs - listed here. Broken down into categories:
- General Hospice Care Blogs
- Elder Care Blogs
- Death Care Blogs
- Pain Management Blogs
- Nursing Home Blogs
- Caregiver Blogs
- Nurse Blogs
Monday, February 1, 2010
Lai-Mei Pang - Life Support Withdrawn over Family Objections to Save Resources
Today,s Guardian reports that doctors switched off a Battersea woman's life support machine without her family's permission to save NHS resources, her husband has claimed.
Shun-Yuen Pang, a former British serviceman, asked for his wife Lai-Mei to be kept alive for two more days at Kings College Hospital so that her three sons could have a chance to say a last goodbye. They took the first plane out of Hong Kong when they heard their mother, 58, had been hit by a car on December 22 – but when they arrived she was already dead.Mr Pang, 60, said: “The doctor told me, ‘it’s not you who decides – it’s the hospital. We are turning it off in 30 minutes’. The doctor allegedly said other patients needed the equipment and that NHS resources were overstretched.
A hospital spokesman said: “Life support is only removed when senior doctors are certain recovery is not possible, and family members are kept fully informed at each stage of the decision-making process.”
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