🚀 go-pugleaf

In Delray Beach, Palm Beach County, Florida, there is Delray Medical
Center (DMC).  I was told that:  if a patient on Medicare has a stroke and is
therefore in an
intensive care unit (ICU), the hospital gets paid a flat
fee for the diagnosis regardless of how long the patient remains in ICU.
 This financial arrangement may partly explain something I recently saw
and heard.

A patient close to me had a stroke and was then admitted to an ICU of the
hospital. 
Two doctors, each on a different day (two doctors, two days in a row, one
doctor per day), urged, nagged, and harassed me to consent to his death
(which I did not consent to).  They told me that he was a vegetable, that
I was selfishly feeling good by doing everything I could to keep him alive
although he was hopelessly in horrible pain (inconsistent with the
vegetable metaphor, by the way), that he did not even know who he was,
etc.  Let me tell you how the doctor-implored death was to be
accomplished.

Sooner or later, there would be some sort of medical emergency for the
patient.  Then, withhold help.  Let him die.  For example, there was a
plastic tube bringing oxygen-rich air through his mouth and trachea, into
his lungs.  Sooner or later, it would be removed.  Suppose, after removing
the tube, it immediately became obvious that he is dying for lack of air. 
Instead of doing something to save his life (by sticking the tube back in,
for example), refuse to help him (hoping that the lack of help would
kill).

The two doctors (one of whom was certified in lungs and also in critical
care, and whose name started with a "B" and had 2 syllabels I think) have
a legal duty to save life and to heal.  I am not expert in criminal law. 
In light of the doctors' duty, the doctors' conduct (in addition to being
repulsive) possibly might have been a homicide felony, I guess.

If you do not want to be repeatedly badgered to collude in murder, Delray
Medical Center's coronary ICU may not be for anyone you care about.

..............

The patient knows well who he is, and has a sense of humor and
intelligence.  He is annoyed by stupid questions.  If he is smarter than
the doctors, then I guess that they are vegetables according to their
definition of vegetable (although I do not advocate refusing to intervene
if they have a medical emergency).

.....

You probably remember a Michigan doctor named Kevorkian (who sometimes
helped some patients kill themselves if they repeatedly requested that
help).  One of the arguments made against his conduct was:  even if his
behavior is good, allowing his behavior would put us on a slippery slope
that we should not be on (because it eventually would lead to many doctors
and other medical personnel wrongly trying to manipulate people into
death).  DMC has already slipped to that point on the slope.

.....

I have some notes and other records (showing doctor's names, dates and
times of conversations, and other info) although I prepared this post
without the notes.


...............
...............


BTW, I observed male and female plainclothes security personnel inside the
hospital and elsewhere.  If they were trying to hint to me that I should
be aware of them, they succeeded.  If they did not want me to notice them,
then they were pathetically incompetent.  I don't know if the security
personnel I am referring to here were private security personnel or
plainclothes cops.

spamAJMspam


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