6/4/14
How is our Health Care
System? How can we improve it?
The
Continued Deterioration of Our Health Care System
by Bobby Schindler /
Washington DC / LifeNews.com / March 20, 2014
It was nine years ago,
March 18, 2005, that my sister, Terri Schiavo's feeding tube was removed by
order of Pinellas County Florida Court Judge, George W. Greer. It was by
Greer's order that Terri would slowly die by way of starvation and
dehydration. It took almost two weeks.
Since Terri's horrific
death, the non-profit organization established by my family, the Terri Schiavo
Life and Hope Network, works every day doing what we can to educate the public,
raises the desperately needed awareness on this widely misunderstood issue of
euthanasia, and more importantly, helps families that contact us. The
vast majority of families who do reach out to us are faced with situations
where their loved ones are in jeopardy of having their life sustaining
treatment denied.
What has become
painfully obvious is that it seems like almost every day, more examples of
families' medical rights are being denied when it comes to decisions they are
making for their loved ones. Indeed, we receive calls similar to what our
family experienced - a domestic dispute over the care of a family member.
However, more and more, we are getting calls from people who are fighting
physicians, ethic committees, or health care facilities where their loved ones
are being treated.
It can go as far as, if you
can believe it, families having their loved ones stripped away from their care
by the hospital, losing complete custody. When this does happen, there
appears to be a certain pattern that begins the process.
First, the hospital
physicians, nurses or even the staff will create or exaggerate a situation
involving the family, most times without any real evidence, or they will fault
the parents or loved one who is the caregiver with some type of mishap with the
patient. Often times what follows is the family member(s) who were making
medical treatment decisions are vilified, or accused of being the problem.
This gives the hospital a reason to intervene and subsequently take action to
deem the family incompetent as the caretaker.
The hospital can then go as
far as restricting visitation rights, or completely stopping any family member
from visiting their loved one, claiming that they are a "threat" to
the care of the patient. The hospital can then go to court in order to
gain control of the patient by requesting that a guardian be appointed or even
the hospital itself, in place of the family members who were caring for their
loved one.
The family who was once in
the position of taking care of their loved one is now on the outside looking in
- having no legal rights or any ability to help or even visit them. If
you think this cannot happen, then you haven't heard of three cases currently
taking place where the family has been removed as the care givers of their
child and / or spouse. The cases of Justina Pelletier in Massachusetts,
Bret Bohnin in Alaska, and the Gary Harvey case in New York. All you need
to do is look them up.
In each situation, the
facility contends that these patients were not being properly cared for by
their family member and as a result, the patients were removed from their
custody. Although these cases have their differences, there is one common
denominator. Despite the reasons specified, it appears that in each
instance proper care was being given. And in all of these situations, the
care of their loved one has been put in the hands of strangers.
There have been countless
warning signs with the state of our health care system and its perilous
direction when it comes to caring for those who are unable to speak for
themselves. Perhaps much of it started with the death of my sister,
Terri. It is because of this that over the next two weeks, Terri's Life
and Hope Network website will post stories of the events that occurred on each
of those horrific days of Terri's inhumane death. Not only to remember
Terri, but also to keep in mind the countless people who, as we speak, are
suffering slow, agonizing deaths in hospices, nursing homes, and hospitals in
America and around the world. Not to mention that every one of us needs
to understand that no longer are we the ones who will be making medical decisions
for our loved ones if we ever find ourselves in a situation where a hospital
decides it knows better.
Find out more about
Terri Schiavo Life and Hope Network @ www.lifeandhope.com
, or write them at P.O. Box 521, Narberth, PA 19072, or phone them at
855-300-HOPE (4673).
Find out more about LifeNews.com @ www.LifeNews.com .
New note (added
info. Not from the article):
Any Health Care Law should protect life, support life, and should further the
healing of human life and do no harm to human life, and should not force anyone
to dishonor the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. We humans are created
by our Creator Lord, in His image, for His glory! We humans are more than
flesh and blood! Any such Health Care Law should be discussed by,
supported and agreed upon by, independents, republicans, and democrats alike
and should be presented to the public before voted upon Congress and
signed by the President of the United States. Any Health Care Law should
show the public that all those involved with the writing of the Health Care Law
value human life - life made in the image of our Creator - life given as a gift
of the Lord.
Let's call on our loving, gracious, merciful Creator
Lord's help, and help to repeal, or change all the problems with, the new
Health Care Law!!!
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