With the looming and imminent threat of insufficient hospital and ICU beds, medical equipment and healthcare staff, I found myself recalling an old favorite TV show from my college years. MASH (mobile army surgical hospital) created both comedy and drama around the reality of having three operating room beds in an army tent on the … Continue reading COVID-19 Reveals A Deadly Failure of Priorities
Nine month old Tinslee Lewis was scheduled to die today (11/11/19), based on a Fort Worth hospital’s decision to remove her ventilator under the Texas futility law. The nation’s most infamous futility law provides for ten days notice and you’re dead — unless another willing medical provider takes over. From news video, it does not … Continue reading Texas Mother Fights To Save Her 9-Month-Old Baby From Hospital’s Futility Judgment
Good news! Following intervention by attorneys, the Minnesota hospital that we previously reported had planned to stop providing oxygen to a woman with lung cancer decided to follow her wishes to continue treatment. This goes to show, as so many people with disabilities have experienced, that when there’s a power imbalance operating against you, get legal/advocate … Continue reading Update: Minnesota Hospital Agrees to Continue Oxygen for Catie
Friday night, I got a phone call from a woman who said that a Minnesota hospital had stated its plan for Monday at 1:00 pm to discontinue providing oxygen to her friend, Catie, a woman with lung cancer who stated that she wants to live and keep getting oxygen. NDY sometimes gets calls like this … Continue reading What Can We Do When A Hospital Plans To Involuntarily Withdraw Life Support?
The New York Department of Health recently requested public input from health care providers and patients on how to make advance care planning forms more understandable and easy to use. The Department provided a response template with questions focused on people’s experiences with three forms: the health care proxy, out-of-hospital do not resuscitate order (DNR) … Continue reading NDY Submits Public Comment to NY Dept. of Health on Advance Care Planning
