[Magdalen] RIP Sir Terry Pratchett

[sally.davies at gmail.com]

Last year a colleague lent me Jennifer Worth's "In the Midst of Life" which
was a beautiful read and a plangent call for more compassion and less
technology. What stood out for me there was the application of palliative
principles in a wide variety of medical conditions, not just the usual.

It has opened my eyes to the amount of needless, expensive and painful
medical interference, especially when patients are very frail and elderly
to start with.

Slippery slope arguments only help us with regard to policy and so forth,
in individual cases we need options and that seems to be happening less and
less.

Port Elizabeth doesn't have an in-patient Hospice any more because they
couldnt' raise enough donor funds to keep it going...there's still a
community based service but two Sisters and one doctor can only do so much.
Our hospital, Aurora, is taking in "palliative" patients but their
"pathway" is undefined and unmanaged other than Lots Of Morphine which
seems to be the solution to everything. That's not palliative care IMO,
certainly not what I learned from the Hospice movement here and in the UK.

I didn't appreciate that Death With Dignity is also committed in terms of
effort and finance, to ensuring that everyone has access to high quality
end of life care. Obviously the "assisted suicide" story gets all the Press
attention but I remain convinced that in the great majority of cases,
genuine high quality palliative care will offer a better alternative
leaving less turmoil behind.

Sally D
On Fri, 13 Mar 2015 at 02:53 ME Michaud <michaudme at gmail.com> wrote:

> I am glad that Vermont is an easy (and pretty) drive, should one of us
> need to make the trip some day. Oregon and Washington (state) are
> just too far. But maybe by then we won't have to leave the state at
> all.
> -M
>