Yesterday, I received email from Ianthe Livadas. Ianthe was removed as her mother’s guardian in a dispute with Strong Memorial Hospital here in Rochester. This is part of what she wrote:
…her current attending (he doesn’t even know her) just told me that CFC has decided that my mother should be disconnected, and that the hospital administration has decided that it will be done at 12:30 p.m tomorrow (Friday, August 29, 2008).
This was reconfirmed later in the day, when WHAM-13 aired a short story announcing the impending death of Dorothy Livadas.
The timing of this would appear to pretty strategic. Anyone who is a political cable news junkie knows about the “Friday news dump.” News “dumped” on a Friday minimizes news coverage – news readership of papers is down, news stations aren’t staffed as well. By the time Monday comes, the news is stale and no longer news at all.
Strong Hospital and the Catholic Family Center picked a perfect Friday for minimizing any attention being given to the death of Dorothy Livadas. The media is focussed on Obama’s acceptance of the Democratic nomination last night and the announcement of McCain’s VP pick today. Not to mention an approaching hurricane down in the Gulf. And it’s a three-day weekend. It’s a good move in terms of burying a story you don’t want covered.
By the time most people read this, Dorothy Livadas will almost certainly be dead.
I can’t claim to know what Dorothy Livadas would want, but I do know that the legal moves, the word games with “brain death” and the cold media calculations over the timing of her death leave me with a cold and queasy feeling. –Stephen Drake
Without all the details this situation can and has been interpreted in different ways.I happen to know of Mrs. Livadas’s daughter and she is,to be polite,eccentric.The courts decided she was not competant to make decisions for her mother and appointed her guardianship to CFC.The real issue here is that people need to talk to their loved ones about end of life issues and let their wishes be known. Then(the important part) make sure they appoint someone they can trust to carryout their wishes. It may not be a family member,but as long as the health care proxy knows what you would or wouldn’t want and is STRONG enough to RESPECT your wishes, situations like this shouldn’t happen. And by the way…make sure your health care proxy is of sound mind!
godhelpusall,
I’m not sure that this is the main issue at all. You concentrate on your impressions of Ianthe Livadas as “eccentric” but ignore the fact that we have two instances of the physicians in the case being – to put it politely – somewhat less than truthful in their language. In the newspaper article quoted in the first post on Livadas, a physician threw out the term “brain death” in front of reporters. According to Channel 13, a physician testified that Dorothy Livadas was brain dead and then had to reverse his testimony.
What lesson should we learn from that pattern of behavior? –Stephen Drake
To my shame, I don’t know much about Dorthy Livadas. But I would like to reply to godhelpusall’s comment. When a something like this happens, people assure tell us that the moral of the story is that we all must clearly communicate our wishes ahead of time to family members. However, my concern is that we are increasinly being able to communicating desires that medicine never should allow. What if I tell my husband I want to be euthanized if I am in a wheel chair? Much of the confusion, anxiety, and anguish in these situations is that healthcare workers, who do not normally consulted about what patients most need, are asking family members to give a medical opinion on whether a loved one should live or die. These are decisions human beings were never meant to make about another human life. Our consciences feel traumatized when we are try to answer quesitons in the form of moral dilemmas that actually are moral rather black and white. Sadly, physicians increasinly are leaving these questions up to us. My friend, I understand your heart’s intent, but now that I have been in a similar situation, I see how much we are being empowered to make decisions we are not meant to make. Medicine must always fight to protect patients and do no harm.
Lauren,
As you see, I only deleted your shorter post and your message about duplicate messages. I think this is the one you wanted posted since it’s a lot more complete.
Don’t feel embarrassed. I’m also in the “club” of people who have put in duplicate or multiple postings to a blog. 🙂
–Stephen Drake