POLST Lawsuit -- The Complaint

I have posted a copy of the Complaint in DeArmond v. Permanente Medical Group here.  A copy of the POLST that Kaiser allegedly refused to honor is attached to the Complaint.  Update:  Here is the C&C press release.

Put the Elderly on Ice?

In a CNN Opinion piece, 82-year-old GWU professor Amitai Etzioni argues that:  "We should learn to accept death more readily; we should stop aggressive interventions when there is little hope; we should provide dying people with palliative care to make their passing less painful and less traumatic."  


But Professor Etzioni argues against using age as a criterion.  "Such a case may not just be that of an elderly person succumbing to a terminal illness -- it can be that of a preemie born too early to survive, a youngster following a car wreck, a worker following a tragic accident. We should learn from the Eskimos -- they long ago stopped abandoning their elderly just because they got "too" old."

Lawsuit Filed for Failure to Comply with POLST

With the help of Compassion and Choices, the family of Emily DeArmond has filed an action against Kaiser Health Plan seeking monetary damages and an order that Kaiser institute policies to ensure that their providers respect patients’ treatment instructions.

Emily DeArmond lived with brain cancer for most of her young life. As she approached her final months, her parents met with her oncologist, her neurosurgeon and a medical ethicist to discuss Emily’s care in light of her rapid decline.  Together they completed a POLST.

Several weeks after completion of the POLST, Emily’s parents found her unconscious in bed.  They rushed her to a nearby emergency room affiliated with Kaiser, Emily’s provider.  They told the staff about her POLST, which included the order: Do Not Intubate.  They did not want Emily to endure any painful, invasive procedures in her final days.  But the emergency physician failed to honor the order and forced a breathing tube down Emily’s throat.  She endured the presence of the tube until she was transferred to another Kaiser facility, where doctors withdrew it and allowed Emily to die.

While there are other pending lawsuits concerning resuscitation in contravention of DNR orders and advance directives, this may be the first lawsuit for failure to comply with a POLST.

Sean Davison Convicted of Procuring Mother's Death

In New Zealand, Sean Davison has pleaded guilty to a charge of procuring and inciting his mother's death.  He gave his cancer-ridden mother, Pat, a drink containing crushed morphine tablets before she died.  

What is odd, however, is that Pat had earlier tried to starve to death.  But she was still alive after 32 days.  Since Pat was a medical doctor and Sean a microbiologist, it is unclear why Pat tried a hunger strike (with water) as opposed to a refusal of both food and fluid.  That would have been far quicker.  It would have been more peaceful.  And, in contrast, to ingesting lethal medication, it would have been legal.

Short Video Summary of Sanger Case

Sanger Death Moots Surrogate End-of-Life Dispute

In end-of-life treatment cases that reach the courts, the patient often dies before the court can rule.  Litigation is takes longer than the rest of the patient's life.  That is what happened in the case of Daniel Sanger.  

Late last month, Sanger's mother obtained a TRO to reinsert a feeding tube that Sanger's wife had refused.  Yesterday, the court was to address who was the appropriate decision maker for Sanger.  But that hearing was dismissed as moot, since Sanger died.  Sadly, this sort of result frequently means that society is deprived of judicial guidance on these questions.