![\"\"](\"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Screenshot-1-2.png\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nAfter battling multiple sclerosis for twelve years my wife was in\nthe Intensive Care Unit of a hospital. The care had been good and everyone was\nattentive. The physician in charge of her care pulled me aside one day and\nsaid, “Glenn, you know, there comes a time for all of us and your wife has\nsuffered with this disease for a long time. Don’t you think it’s time we let\nher go on?” He then added, “We can let her go on or we can try to\nextend her life as long as possible.” “Doc,” I replied, “I\nwant her to live as long as possible.” “Good enough,” he said,\n“That’s what we will try to do.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She lived about two weeks or so after that conversation. During\nthose two weeks she spent quality time with family, her sons and I. She had\nvisitors who had conversations with her. Before her death she was able to speak\nclearly to me and state her thoughts and wishes. I remember the day we had to\ntake her back to the nursing home that she ate one of the better meals that she\nhad eaten in several weeks. Those two weeks was time that I know she would not\nhave wanted to have given up, nor would I.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I have found it interesting looking back now that a couple of the\nnurses at the nursing home stated to me the day that we got her back to the\nnursing home, “Glenn, we are so sorry.” It was like they were saying\nthey were sorry about my wife’s death and looking back, that’s exactly what\nthey were talking about. It was like the hospital had said to the nursing home\nstaff, “There is nothing more to be done and it’s time to let her\ndie.” My question all along has been did they let her die, or did they\npush or move her death along a little faster? It seemed after her meal that she\nenjoyed, that she suddenly started going downhill fast, became quieter, groggy\nand eventually lulled into a sleep in which she never woke up and passed away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A friend of mine had a stroke recently. A lady who I know who used\nto work in the hospital said, “After seven days, Medicare will give the\nhospital an ultimatum. Either she is going to get better or they will tell the\nhospital to unhook her and let her die.” She had a living will and so the\nhospital staff used the living will to state, “This is what she\nwants.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I’ve taken note lately that every place I go is pushing a living\nwill document at me. I’m going to have one, but I’ll write it. I don’t need an\ninsurance provider or Medicare writing my living will for me. Whose advantage\nis the living will for if they have written the document and I have merely\nsigned it? It’s more for their bottom line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Your life is worth more than the bottom line. We all will likely\nbe out of control at the end of life. Don’t make it so easy for those who don’t\neven know you to take your life away from you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Dr. Glenn Mollette After battling multiple sclerosis for twelve years my wife was in the Intensive Care Unit of a hospital. The care had been good and everyone was… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":46143,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46142"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46142"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46142\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46143"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}