Best interest for who

I came across a memo written by risk management in 2011 that said that it was going to allow me to be Randy's substitute decision maker as long as I had Randy's best interest.  What that means is as long as I agree to whatever VCH wants to do I could be his substitute decision maker.  It seems that a physician has legal arbitrariness to determine this.  Since I did not know anything medical, there was no fear of that. How could I, a rational person, go against what a doctor wants. I am not a health professional. I could comment on an observation respecting care but that is a remote outlier to a medical prognosis. Advocating for Randy, as he wanted to live, is not interferring with his care.  But it seems that according to VCH it was not in Randy's best interest to live.

How was it that Randy asked for a DNR to be placed on himself when he could not even talk or write and when he was unresponsive. When he was transferred from VGH to GPC on November 15 2013  he was not screaming that he wanted a DNR on him.  Not only a DNR but also a DNT (do not transfer order).  The DNT to guarantee if he was in medical distress that the nurses at GPC would not transfer him to acute care (VGH) so he could live. Randy was only 56 years at that time.

From the evidence from 2011 it is clear to me now but not then GPC was wanting to do damage control. The visiting ban would prevent me from seeing and hearing what was happening in the Ward.  For example, after I purchased a flat screenTV for Randy which I could ill afford it sat in a box for over a month.  It was not until a visitor phoned me and said "where is Randy's TV"....  And another time, a few days after Randy was first sent to George Pearson Centre, upon my visiting, Randy was very sick and it was I who brought this to the attention of the staff.  He immediately was transferred back to VGH. Then hell broke out for short period of time. There were numerous other narratives as well.

I just assumed that management was using incidents "red herring" that made no sense to me to have me banned (hours and days and access severely restricted) for being overly friendly which apparently upset patients, their families, and staff. The overly friendly part might be true but no one got upset. There was a big issue about wool bedding. About entering rooms when I had an implied invitation to do so.  And about flowers.  And about food.  Even a newspaper and a chair.   And the doggies. Doggies are allowed at VGH.  And the orchids I supposedly took from the garden. It got so bizarre that I was to be escorted to the toilet down a long hall when I went to visit Randy. So I decided to wear Depends.  I was also taking take a valium every time I went to GPC to curb my anxiety.

On the day I first met Nurse Ratchet at GPC in 2010 I was told that I would have to sign a visitation contract. I never did as she changed her mind. Randy had no rights, neither did I.  The rights only belonged to GPC.  They did everything possible to make me a basket case. I was negatively labeled and everyone acted as though I was to be avoided. I became a victim of prolonged psychological abuse by an alien fossilized institution that I did not understand. An institution that robs everyone of their civil rights "commonsense" including staff.

VCH took total advantage of an unequal playing field.  They abused their extreme superior power. It was brutal.  It was entrapment.  It was outrageous.  And they had a human hostage named "Randy."