How Some Hospices are Killing Patients: One Familys Story by Karla Dial LifeNews.com Staff Writer January 2, 2004 [Editors Note: This article is a follow-up to our well-received exclusive profile of the hospice industry, “Are Euthanasia Advocates Taking Over Americas Hospice Industry?
” * Names have been changed in this article to protect the identity of people mentioned in it.] Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — The idea of hospices killing patients can evoke a lot of responses — ranging from wide-eyed incredulity to blatant derision. Hospices don’t kill people, some might say; it simply does not happen. Marilyn Martin* would beg to differ. Martin’s father was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 1995. Five years later, his wife put him in a hospice. Within two weeks, he was dead. “The night he died [the hospice] called me,” Martin recalled, “I rushed over in the middle of the night and asked what happened. A nurse said that after we had all left, she gave him some morphine to help his breathing. “He wasn’t having any trouble breathing. So I knew right away they had just overdosed him.” Martin believes her father was killed for money — specifically, so her mother could inherit some of the millions in his bank account and continue her jet-set lifestyle, unfettered
Related Questions
- How Some Hospices are Killing Patients: One Familys Story by Karla Dial LifeNews.com Staff Writer January 2, 2004 [Editors Note: This article is a follow-up to our well-received exclusive profile of the hospice industry, "Are Euthanasia Advocates Taking Over Americas Hospice Industry?
- Are patients and family caregivers told how many visits they can expect from hospice staff and how they are informed about changing needs?
- Some hospices have inpatient units in which their staff cares for patients 24 hrs/day. How would this be reflected on their claim?
