This case is a true tragedy made worse by being turned into a media circus and exposing just how inhumane our legal system has become.
I was in Macon GA last week attending my dad as he buried my step-Mom. During the course of the visit, I stopped to spend some time with my Mom. She is in her 80s and has late stage Alzheimer's and is blind as the result of medical malpractice occurring some 6 years ago.
On Saturday, as I was preparing to leave, she uttered in her disease slurred speech, "I do not want to live any more". I kissesd her and told her that I loved her and that God would take care of her.
Sunday night, my step Dad found her laying on the hall floor between her bedroom and the bathroom. She was taken to hospital and diagnosed with a stroke. She is being moved today from the hospital to a hospice. The doctors say she has anywhere from 5-7 days to live; she has no will to survive.
My brother and I, in accordance with Mom's living will, have informed the hospice staff that there is to be no resusitation or "heroic" measures. When the Almighty calls, we want Mom to go, sweetly and peacefully. Yet, we have made it very clear that she is to be given drugs, liquids and food as she wishes plus any other pallative care to ease her suffering.
It is the Shaivo case's inhumane witholding of this pallative care that is gruesome and, for me, impossible to understand. That we have a legal system that permits such a travesty and insult to human dignity gives me great pause in considering what our society and culture is coming to be.
God forgive us when we legally tortue the defenseless.
Tom A.
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