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Friday, May 29, 2015

Attorney Slams Suicide Legislation

Attorney slams California suicide bill

Dore: “Even if you like the concept of assisted suicide, SB 128 is the wrong bill.”

Contact: Margaret Dore (206) 697-1217

Seattle, WA -- Attorney Margaret Dore, president of Choice is an Illusion, which has fought assisted suicide legalization efforts in many states and now California, made the following statement after the California Senate Appropriations Committee passed SB 128 on May 28, sending the assisted suicide bill to the Senate floor.

"SB 128 is sold as giving people an 'end of life option,’” Dore said. “The fact is this bill is about ending the lives of people who aren’t necessarily dying anytime soon, and giving other people the ‘option’ to hurry them along."

Dore, an attorney in Washington State where assisted suicide is legal, explained, “In my law practice, I started out working in guardianships, wills and probate, and saw abuse of all kinds, especially where there was money involved (where there's a will, there are heirs). Then, in 2008, I got dragged to a meeting about our assisted suicide law and saw the perfect crime: your heir could help sign you up, and once the lethal dose was in the house, there was no oversight. Not even a witness is required. If you struggled, who would know?"

“If enacted, California’s SB 128 will allow assisted suicide (and euthanasia), with or without consent,” Dore said. “And in case I’m being too subtle, the drugs used are water and alcohol soluble, such that they can be injected into a restrained or sleeping person. After the person dies, the death certificate is REQUIRED to reflect a natural death. It’s the perfect crime.”

The California bill and Washington’s law are both based on a similar law in Oregon. 

SB 128, like the Washington and Oregon laws, seeks to legalize assisted suicide for people with a “terminal disease,” which is defined in terms of a doctor’s determination of less than six months to live. In real life, such persons can have years, even decades to live. This is true for many reasons. 

“Doctors can be wrong about life expectancy, sometimes way wrong," Dore said. "This is due to actual mistakes: They evaluated another patient’s test results. More typically, however, doctors are wrong because predicting life expectancy is not an exact science. A couple of years ago, I was picked up at the airport by a man who at age 18 had been diagnosed with ALS, and given 3 to 5 years to live, at which time he was predicted to die by paralysis. This had been confirmed by the Mayo Clinic. When he picked me up, he was 74 years old. The disease progression had stopped on its own.”

“Another reason that patients can have years, even decades, to live is that the definition of “terminal” as six months to live is a determination of  lifespan without treatment, Dore said. “Consider my friend, Jeanette Hall, diagnosed with terminal cancer in 2000, who was adamant that she would use Oregon’s law. Her doctor convinced her to be treated instead. She is still alive today, 15 years later.” 

In Oregon, people with chronic conditions, such as diabetes, are “terminal” for the purpose of assisted suicide. Oregon doctor, William Toffler, explains: People "with these conditions are considered terminal if they are dependent on their medications, such as insulin, to live…such persons, with treatment, could otherwise have years or even decades to live."

“If SB 128 becomes law, people with years, even decades to live, will be encouraged to throw away their lives; patients and their families will be traumatized,” said Dore. “SB 128, as written, will, regardless, allow the perfect crime.  Even if you like the concept of assisted suicide and euthanasia, SB 128 is the wrong bill.” 

For more detail and backup documentation about problems with SB 128, go here: http://www.californiaagainstassistedsuicide.org/2015/05/sb-128-promise-of-patient-choice-and.html

Tuesday, May 26, 2015

Where is Mary Turner

Where is MARY TURNER from |Prince George, I need to know what happened to her.
604-321--2276

Saturday, May 16, 2015

Demo # 1 at George Pearson Centre

For close to a year I have been trying to see a resident at George Pearson Centre and I was always told that the patient was NOT up-to-it.  The last e-mail I got from Risk Management said that CarolAnn does not want to see me.  It has been close to a year and I do not believe Richard Singleton, Director of Risk Management.

Since I can't access George Pearson Centre I decided I would do up a sign so that someone would get a message to CarolAnn to say that I was on the sidewalk boulevard.  The sign said:  TELL CAROL ANNE THAT I MISS HER.  Innocent enough even if she doesn't want to see me I wanted her to know that I have not abandoned her.  She is a quad and she can't speak.

To make the situation a bit tense, Paladin Security, the security company that has taken over the security of all Vancouver Coastal Health properties and the one that really hurts is that Paladin and their lack of understanding basic law is even in the court house, approached me and threatened to call the police as I was harassing patients.  What patients.  No one asked me about my sign and I was on a public sidewalk..

That reminds me whatever happened to my complaint of October 21, 2013, wherein the security guard, Karen Marshall, put a choke hold on me when I was acting in self-defense over the hysterics of two nurses: one who was tired and the other spiteful. 

And there is Cheryl, Randy's nurse at that time, who saw me fall on the sidewalk when I was going to visit Randy and I wasn't able to get up. She walked by me without even inquiring if I was okay.  No I wasn't okay.  Whatever happened to her and my complaint. I suspect because the fall happened on public property she was under no obligation to help me.

I have come to the conclusion that Vancouver Coastal Health is a totalitarian state, with its own police force, ruled by star chamber justice.

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Friday, May 8, 2015

Those damn hospital/patient alarms ...

"You hear an alarm every second of every day,” Manley [the nursing home’s defense lawyer] said."

RT charged with criminally negligent homicide.
 
  http://www.startribune.com/trial-of-ny-nursing-home-employees-in-patient-death-begins/302686381/ 

By FRANK ELTMAN Associated Press
May 5, 2015 — 8:45pm
RIVERHEAD, N.Y. — Five employees of a suburban New York nursing home are defending themselves against charges they disregarded alarms for more than two hours, leading to the death of a 72-year-old bedridden patient who was not connected to a ventilator.
Opening statements in the complicated double-jury trial began Tuesday in state Supreme Court in Riverhead, on eastern Long Island.
The five defendants are among nine workers at the Medford Multicare Center for Living Inc. charged in the October 2012 death of Aurelia Rios of Central Islip. Two of the nine have pleaded guilty, while two others are expected to face trial this summer. The corporate entity that runs the nursing home also is facing charges in the woman's death.
In the case of the remaining five, state Supreme Court Justice John Collins decided to conduct one trial to save time but have two separate juries hear testimony simultaneously. One jury is considering the case against Kethlie Joseph, a respiratory therapist accused of failing to connect a respirator to Rios and later ignoring pagers and other alarms indicating she was in distress.
The second jury is considering the case against four others — the director of respiratory therapy and three nurses — who are accused of falsifying business records and other charges stemming from the woman's death. All five have pleaded not guilty.
During her first opening statement in the case against Joseph, prosecutor Veronica MacDevitt said Joseph was charged with criminally negligent homicide for failing to ensure that Rios was connected to a ventilator. "It was the most basic and most fundamental aspect of her job," MacDevitt said. She added that later, when electronic monitors and other indicators showed that the patient was in distress, Joseph and others disregarded the alarms.
Defense attorney Jonathan Manley countered that Joseph had to care for 20 patients the night Rios died, and he questioned the effectiveness of a pager alarm system that he said went off constantly throughout the night for both serious and incidental problems.
"You hear an alarm every second of every day," Manley said. "A beeper is not a reliable indicator of a patient's health."
He added there was a nurse in Rios' room throughout the night, and that when Joseph was finally informed
Later Tuesday, MacDevitt laid out the case against the four other employees before a separate jury. She said each in their own way either failed to respond to alarms indicating the patient was in distress or subsequently lied to investigators about Rios' death.
"Someone else's failure doesn't excuse their failures," MacDevitt said.
Although opening statements were conducted separately before each jury, the judge indicated that for the majority of the trial, both juries would hear testimony simultaneously. The trial, expected to last five to six weeks, is being held in a large courtroom in the Suffolk County Court complex. Although rare, other double-jury trials have been held in the county.
Hank Sheinkopf, a spokesman for the Medford facility, called the trial "a very complicated case. The facts will be presented to the judge. And we will prove that Medford's patient commitment was not lacking."
Among the expected expert witnesses is a Dr. Michael Baden, a forensic pathologist and host of HBO's "Autopsy." 

Richard J. Mollot, Executive Director
Long Term Care Community Coalition
One Penn Plaza, Suite 6252
New York, NY 10119
www.ltccc.org
www.nursinghome411.org
www.assisted-living411.org
Phone: 212-385-0355
Emailrichard@ltccc.org

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