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Wednesday, April 10, 2013

VGH's Report Card (CBC's Fifth Estate)

VGH has been assigned a D; I suspect GPC must be a F.

This indicator measures the number of patients per 1,000 who develop problems tied to nursing care such as urinary tract infections, bed sores, pneumonia or broken bones. Nurses are not solely responsible but studies show a strong link to low nurse staffing levels. see cbc.ca/health

At GPC I have never heard or even seen any nursing staff being "burned out" from being overworked.  And no patient/resident at GPC will ever attest to that.

So Randy has been getting poor nursing care as I have suspected:of his urinary tract infections, bed sores, pneumonia, broken bones, psychological neglect....

see cbc.ca/health


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Sunday, April 7, 2013

An advocate

This past week a medical professional complimented me on being such a good advocate for Randy.  I have heard that before.  My response to her was why does Randy need an advocate.  If the medical establishment was doing its job advocacy would not be necessary.  The medical profession has convinced the government that it is policing itself so the government does nothing. I still haven't got a reply from the Ethics Committee as to if it will look into the events surrounding Randy's DNRs.  When did quality of life rather than life itself become the medically accepted norm ...


Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Carter Appeal

Listening to the Carter Appeal last week the bell rang what about reverse discrimination.  Why is it that two or three people who are so handicapped that they can't commit suicide by themselves should be granted a "good and safe" death under the supervision of the medical system while the rest of us who are suffering have to opt for a painful death by dehydration (refusal of food and water i.e.refusing medical treatment) or a violent end with a gun.
 
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Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Nothing has Changed

The other day at the Oakridge bus stop I mentioned to one of the RN in Randy's Ward who was waiting for the bus that Randy is going to be angry at me as I am very late.  She didn't say anything but I noticed her inching away from me to being fifteen feet away.  It didn't connect.  At 57th after exiting from the bus with this RN who was walking more than a few feet behind me on the public sidewalk to the entrance of GPC and at the 7th tree I tumbled from the sidewalk head first and fell. : the sidewalk was sixty years old, it was uneven and I was wearing sloppy shoes.  As I laid on the grass next to the sidewalk not knowing if I was injured or not the RN from the Oakridge bus stop walked pass me without even inquiring if I was okay.  I could not believe it. A RN, a nurse, someone who I see whenever she is on shift, Randy's sometimes charge nurse, and she just walked by.  If she can't greet or help an old lady in distress I wonder what she is doing to the residents at GPC.  I know there are some good people at GPC but I would like to know who they are. During the 2.5 years I have been going to GPC no one has shown me any real  kindness...I wonder how many patients/residents at GPC are likewise treated by this nurse in the same manner. But then no one would see her behavior since patients are in private rooms or hidden behind mostly closed curtains in open wards which wards are designed so that staff can see all the patients from a glance but when the curtains are closed then no one can see no evil, heard no evil, speak no evil..  Relying on S02 meters should not the accepted method to use when a patient needs suctioning.  The SO2 is a default and subject to equipment failure and in Randy's case he rarely has his SO2 meter on during the day or his humidifier on during the day putting him at risk.. Using the humidifier keeps his secretions thin so they do not plug up preventing him from breathing. .Randy can't talk so he can't even call for help as his call bell is hung up behind his headboard out oh his reach, so he could not even reach it if he had to. All hospital wards should be videoed and audioed so every movement and conversation can be heard.  In Jails every thing is videoed so why not hospitals. When you go to a retail store you are under surveillance.There are cameras on transit vehicles.  Residents are not asked if they want to be under surveillance or not (patients do not even have this protection) it is up to the hospital.  You would think that Risk Management would be insisting on such measures to protect the integrity of health care.

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Saturday, March 16, 2013

Flashback and post traumatic stress

I am in a very bad state of mind.  I have having reoccurring flashbacks of my life these past few years.  I wish these memories on no one.

Yesterday I was reading the Particulars from one of my neighbours from hell.  The Particulars are in the complaint she filed with Animal Control over Randy's doggies.  Her hate of me is a direct result of my  banning from George Pearson Centre. I must be a crazy otherwise I would not have been banned so she has license to do what she wants to harass me and make my life untenable as she is being a good neighbour looking after the neighbourhood and calling the police (and the police came) because she suspected that I was casing homes in the area so I could rob them. I was walking the doggies. To resolve the doggie issue with her (their barking etc.) I asked her for the use of her overgrown six foot high fenced backyard for the doggies to play in as I had no fenced yard. To her any sharing of her never used unkept fenced-in property was a preposterous suggestion.  This from a mature woman who lives with her 80+ year old mother in a $3 million teardown bungalow off of Cambie at Oakridge. 

But then it now seems that my banning is now under the heading guidelines. I am not sure what guidelines mean to VCH because it apparently gave authority to Paladin security and medical staff to physically assault me and deny me access to Randy on his death bed when he had pneumonia in October 2012 with a DNR over his head. I was forcibly removed from Ward 2 with the brutal assistance of the VPD. Every other time I had occasion to deal with the police they were always kind to me.  I did not want to leave Randy as he was very sick (with a DNR unknown to me on his chart)..It might have been the last time I could have been with him. A DNR means that a patient does not go to intensive care. With a serious pneumonia this is where you should go especially if you are rushed from another hospital. In this case from GPC, to UBC, to VGH..

And the only consolence I have are the words of my MLA, Moira Stilwell, that I should not take the actions of GPC personally as VCH is just being overly cautious. I have nothing against banning for two days as emotions can run high but not for two years and beyond.  This from a MLA whose constituent office is never open for constituents.  In the two years that I have lived here, I went to her office many times and her office was always closed.  If you phone there is a message that says if the office is closed the staff is in the community working.  Doing what, to whom, where. Moira has so much perceived power that she doesn't have to interact with the public unless it is managed and staged but then she has a medical degree so she knows she can do whatever she wants and get away with it. No accountability, just photo opts. A mole for Vancouver Coastal Health.

On Wednesday ten days ago I went to the garbage, lifted the lid, and found the three "teak boards" I use as a portable ramp for Randy to access my basement suite. I live in the basement of a duplex.  One of my neighbours from hell was reinforcing the fact that the tenants here do not want a handicapped person on the premises as it made them feel uncomfortable. Another stress on my life ...I now have to guard these boards with my life so Randy can visit me. I assume it was this neighbour who deliberately cemented cement blocks on the sidewalk in front of her duplex so I could not push Randy in his wheelchair pass her door. This was the same neighbour who complained that I would damage the common area grass should I exit to the grassy area as I pushed Randy to the small garden patio area I have in front of my windows. The common grass is fifty years old, diseased, and should be replaced.


When I went to see Randy at 2:00 pm he wasn't looking well and I did not know why.  He said that he wanted to go back to bed which is uncharacter for him as he always wants to go off site.  I was concerned as he seemed to have breathing problems as his trach needed suctioning. His eyes were in a fixed staring state with tears, his colour was off, and he looked lethargic. The RN said he was fine after she took his temperature.  But still he looked not well.  I started to panic.  It wasn't like him.  I let him to muse for a few minutes then I asked him did he want to stay in GPC in bed because on Sunday I was crying and he couldn't help me.. He said yes.  I told him that I have a right now and then like Randy has the right to be depressed and cry.   He concluded that was okay and a few minutes later he asked for the letterboard and he wrote Let's go home. It was 2:30.

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Sunday, March 10, 2013

Kenny is Dead

I was told that Kenny Ng has died at Vancouver General Hospital.

How often do substitute decision makers make the decision to withdraw treatment. Kenny would have died in his own time.  What a waste of the court's time, the lawyers' times, and the hugh division that has happened between the families.  Not to mention the financial $cost to do this. And the nauseating taste/fear of the system to me. In Canada we have no inherent right to life, liberty and security of person. 

How many deaths are caused by removing life support? By substitute decision makers? By patients themselves? There is no way of knowing. 

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Saturday, March 9, 2013

Kenny Transferred February 28 2013

I was advised by three sources that Kenny was transferred on February 28 2013.  I am not sure what "transferred" means at GPC as its policy is not to tell as it is confidential information and can only be given out with the approval of the patient and in this case, Lora, as Lora is Kenny's committee and she can do whatever she wants with Kenny be he dead or alive. She doesn't even have to tell his parents.  

I do not understand why there hasn't been any public interest over what is happening.  But then if the public doesn't know or even those that live and work at GPC do not know, how can an outcry happen.

A medically appropriate decision implanted in Lora's mind by whom?



Sunday, March 3, 2013

View HUNGRY (power of a substitute decision maker)


  Please search and view video:  vimeo.com/35540157
  (from the viewpoint of the patient)

Monday, February 11, 2013

Madam Justice Gropper

I do not know why Madam Justice Gropper refused to use her inherent jurisdiction in the Ng vs. Ng case and say that a committee cannot end life.  She must have had her law clerk opinion the judgement..  And to make it worse BC's Public Guardian and Trustee agreed. I side with Kenny's parents and his siblings who opposed the injunction. 

From reading the January 2013 Judgment it says to me that the medical establishment can trump a Committee (a family member/substitute decision maker) by saying it is a medically appropriate decision to put a human down....starve Kenny to death.  So it has come down to if a patient is minimally conscious and a doctor suggests (tells)/coerces a Committee that it is medically appropriate for her to end a life that she has no choice but to agree. To disagree would not be in the best interest of the patient and that is what it is all about... the best interest of that person.  The doctor trumps the committee if the committee disagrees and the Gropper decision legalizes itThe Committee will lose its committeship as to keep that person alive would not be in the best interest of that person. Enter the Public Guardian and Trustee. The gatekeepers for life and for death are in charge and are forever present..

The medical complications that Kenny has/had could be poor nursing. The care team who sealed Kenny's death:were a family doctor, a neuropsychiatrist (report dated December 2009), a social worker, nurses (what nurses, a Nurse Ratchet), a pharmacist, a recreational therapist and a speech therapist. Why wasn't the dietitian, the respiratory technician, the music therapist, a religious minister or the non-profit clown doctors included. The ethics committee supported the "team's" decision.  What a joke. I have been asking the VCH 's ethics committee to investigate who orchestrated Randy's DNT/DNR  It has been four weeks now with follow-up requests and nothing. In November 2012 Randy was forced to agree to a  Do Not Transfer from GPC so that he would  not be transferred to VGH in the event he had life threatening medical problems.  If Randy needed to be treated at VGH he could not go off the grounds of GPC i.e. to visit me which he does every day. So he chose certain death (the DNT) to be with me. A Do Not Transfer has worse consequences than a DNR. After three months. a few days before Christmas, I was told that the DNT/DNR was lifted but I wasn't given a copy of the last Level of Intervention document although I asked for it.

GPC,  however, should not dislodge Kenny's feed and liquids tubing according to a recent Ontario Supreme Court decision  (the Rasouli case) as it can be interpreted that such tubing is designed to keep a patient alive thus the tubing should not be removed.

According to the Canadian Constitution we have "security of person."  That means LIFE and not premeditated death (suicide) by a Committee with or without consent.. We do not have capital punishment in Canada but a committee can kill someone as long as it is in that person's questionable best interest sanctioned/directed by a doctor. How can death be in the best interest of a patient. The powers of a Committee (substitute decision maker) should fall short of authorizing certain death. And doctors should be technicians not arbitrators of "quality of life." Everyone will die in good time.  There is no reason to rush it.

How can food and water remotely be deemed as "artificial life support." Is feeding a baby with a bottle and formula artificial life support?  A baby cannot feed himself.

As it is now possible to secure stem cells from urine, then there is hope.

If anyone wants a copy of the Ng v Ng judgment, let me know.

Go to: http://vancouversun.com and search for articles "Kenny Ng."

Go to: http://voiceofgonebalilstic.blogspot.com
audreyjlaferriere@gmail.com
604-321-2276

PS Feb 24/13 :  Please search and view video:  vimeo.com/35540157
PS Mar 8 2013 On February 28 2013. Kenny was transferred from GPC ... and the current resident said that she was told a month ago that she would have his room. 






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Saturday, February 2, 2013

Ng v. Ng

A week Friday a BC Supreme Court Judgment went down so that Kenny Ng's wife can authorize Kenny being starved to death at George Pearson Centre.  It should take two weeks. After reading the Reasons for Judgment I became very upset.  Kenny is in a minimally conscious state which means he is not brain dead. Since according to Dr. Narmazi and Dr. Tham, Kenny won't get any better due to his injuries and medical complications so it is medically appropriate that he should die. How can killing Kenny be in his best interest.  Everyone at George Pearson Centre will never get better so will this start a slippery slope to extend to each of them in time.  Kenny will die soon enough on his own so what is the rush.  If you want a copy of the Reasons for Judgment let me know.
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Thursday, January 24, 2013

15 out of 15

This takes the cake.  I asked a woman at the bus stop if she knew what a medical DNRs was.  She said No.  But she kept repeating DNR and said she was a nurse 30 years ago and the term was not something she remembered.  She told me that she worked as a nurse in Toronto ORs and when she married well and moved to BC she didn't have to work any more.  It must be the best open well kept secret in BC.  Only those that need to know know. When did DNRs become common practice. The medical establishment knows how to spin death: DNRs/Advanced Directives as medical treatments not doctor assisted suicides.  When medical staff stands by watching someone die because they have a DNR then they are commiting a crime far worse than murder: genocide.Everyone of us are going to die, the medical establishment does not  have to rush it.


                                             Randy Michael Walker VGH August 2010

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

14 out of 14

My survey now includes 14 out of 14 bus users that did not know what a medical DNR is.  And those that have agreed to DNRs or Advanced Directives I am sure when questioned would not know what they were really agreeing to: a patriotic duty to end one's life sooner than necessary. After agreeing to a DNR are you sure you are going to get optimal care.  There is evidence/research to suggest otherwise. The question is does anyone trust the hospital system.  Even doctors don't trust their colleagues so where does that leave us. 

And another thing I have been wanting to do was to confess to my ignorance of the hospital system.  I blamed Tanu the Nurse Ratchet of GPC when she told me the first time she spoke to me that I could not talk to anyone unless that person talked to me first.  The protocol on how to approach the monarchy. But her telling me does not excuse her from not showing me a written policy.  When Randy was at St. Paul's in December I noticed that there were notices posted stating that visitors are not allowed to talk to others.  I wonder how long this policy would exist if it was posted on a huge bill board outside the entrance of St. Paul's -- next to the bill board asking for public $donations. 

I am still at odds as to why Dr. Patricia Daly hasn't decreed that masks should be put at the entrance of the hospitals especially during flu season.  It isn't staff you have to worry about spreading the flu, it is visitors, vendors and the like who might not even know they have the flu.  Even if you a flu shot, it is only 60% effective. 

The problem with VCH is that no one is in charge but then that is what democracy is all about: chaos and stupidity.

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Sunday, January 20, 2013

Get DNRs: Save $.

Higher 30-Day Mortality for Surgery Patients With DNR

Patients with "do not resuscitate" (DNR) orders are more likely to die within 30 days of surgery, independent of other factors, a new study has found.
Compared with non-DNR patients, more than twice as many DNR patients died within 30 days of surgery (8.4% versus 23.1%, P<0 .001=".001" and="and" at="at" colleagues="colleagues" em="em" in="in" md="md" online="online" reported="reported" roman="roman" sanziana="sanziana" university="university" yale="yale">Archives of Surgery
. As well, the DNR patients were more likely to die no matter what surgical procedure was performed (35.5% versus 17.8%, and 16.6% versus 5.5% for emergent and nonemergent procedures, respectively, P<0 .001=".001" all="all" for="for" p="p">.
 

Monday, January 14, 2013

Geoff Plant 9

I have been feeling totally demoralized over the incidents so far.  I cannot rest comfortably as I know now how fast Randy can end up in hospital.  I remember the YouTube video which explains how VCH deals with the public: delay; deny, divide, discredit and demoralize.  Each day this is still happening.  I am afraid even to speak to anyone any more. Not that I am afraid afraid but because it seems a waste of time.  Even the organizations which are out there after an initial consult abandon me. All the E/Ds know each other and purple dot those that need help much like how VCH purple dot troublemakers which VCH creates in the first place.  I am always told that I am not alone and what happened to me happens to others and then silence. 

Piecing together what happened with the DNR fiasco it is beyond comprehension. I lived with Randy for six years prior to his accident and  for 900 days since his accident I visited him in hospital and I was told I unduly influenced Randy to rescind the Do Not Rescue Order he alledgedly placed on himself so it was not removed.  Although on Friday before Christmas 2012 I was told that his coding was changed to FULL CODE I have yet to see any written proof of it.  It doesn't really matter in any event as a physician can change it the next day and there is no legal obligation for him to tell me or even tell Randy as it might upset us. So much for paternalism, truth and transparency in our health care system.



Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Geof Plant 8

My survey (location bus stop) is now up to 13 out of 13 who do not know what a medical DNR is. 

Saturday, January 5, 2013

Geoff Plant 7

My at the bus stop survey has generated 12 out of 12 Nos to the question of whether that person was aware of a medical DNR Order.

I looked at the four levels of DNR intervention protocols and not even a lawyer could write how confusing they are.

I spoke to a young doctor yesterday and she said that health care is all about quality of life issues...sounds like Hilter and his solution to less than perfect people..

Randy is recovering nicely.  He is back to his demanding stubborn self again.
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Tuesday, January 1, 2013

Geoff Plant 6

Yesterday was a very difficult day for me.  Randy was so so depressed.  He wanted to talk but couldn't.  He wanted the pm valve on his trach.  The valve that enables him to talk/whisper.  The valve that he had on at St. Paul's.  Since his return to GPC  he hasn't had it.  He then didn't want to return to GPC and each day I am forced to return him and he gets extremely angry with me.  I can hardly blame him.  There doesn't seem to be a solution.  I am so scared at times that he may commit suicide by refusing treatment.  VGH fully knows this and hides behind the tenet that a patient can refuse treatment.  They encourage suicide by doing nothing.

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