I found his disturbing article on a website yesterday. Read it here. While I am certainly not keen for the "Never" bit - I would argue that in some cases one should think hard about calling an ambulance.
I recall once when visiting my mother in her nursing home, that she appeared to be unconscious when I arrived. I did everything to "wake" her without success before going to the nursing staff to ask how long my mother had been like that. The senior nurse was all in a flurry, checked on mum's vitals, and agreed that she was unconscious and set out to call an ambulance to take her to hospital.
Now mum was 97, so I wasn't keen for her to have aggressive treatment - as much as I love her, perhaps her time had come. I am not in favour of spending a lot of government funds on such an occasion. The staff knew that I had been a nurse, and when I offered to sit with her all day, they gratefully accepted.
I called my sister, who called my daughter and the three of us sat with her for the next few hours. As I am familiar with death, I was not as disturbed by it all, as were the other two. Oddly after about four hours she woke from whatever sort of sleep she was in, and has been fine ever since. Clearly she had not required hospital treatment - and it was just some sort of "event" that resolved itself. She celebrated her 98th birthday only a few weeks ago and is no worse than she was then.
In many ways her time has come, but she hangs on. She is relatively happy some days.
The article by an intensive care nurse is quite long, but it should make any reader think hard before calling an ambulance.
I certainly do not want to be kept going unless I have a good quality of life - and don't want thousands of dollars keeping me alive if my "use-by-date" is up.
I recall once when visiting my mother in her nursing home, that she appeared to be unconscious when I arrived. I did everything to "wake" her without success before going to the nursing staff to ask how long my mother had been like that. The senior nurse was all in a flurry, checked on mum's vitals, and agreed that she was unconscious and set out to call an ambulance to take her to hospital.
Now mum was 97, so I wasn't keen for her to have aggressive treatment - as much as I love her, perhaps her time had come. I am not in favour of spending a lot of government funds on such an occasion. The staff knew that I had been a nurse, and when I offered to sit with her all day, they gratefully accepted.
I called my sister, who called my daughter and the three of us sat with her for the next few hours. As I am familiar with death, I was not as disturbed by it all, as were the other two. Oddly after about four hours she woke from whatever sort of sleep she was in, and has been fine ever since. Clearly she had not required hospital treatment - and it was just some sort of "event" that resolved itself. She celebrated her 98th birthday only a few weeks ago and is no worse than she was then.
In many ways her time has come, but she hangs on. She is relatively happy some days.
The article by an intensive care nurse is quite long, but it should make any reader think hard before calling an ambulance.
I certainly do not want to be kept going unless I have a good quality of life - and don't want thousands of dollars keeping me alive if my "use-by-date" is up.
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