Richard Singleton wrote me an email saying I was banned from George Pearson Centre because I attempted to take Randy Michael Walker off the grounds to go home with me. In the process I was assaulted by staff, screamed at, humiliated, and forcibly detained. Randy is being forced to stay at George Pearson Centre although he has a history of not wanting to live there. Since Randy can't walk or talk and there were seven out-of-control staff pounding on me I was forced to leave him there. When the police arrived they were not too bright as they were unable to comprehend that Randy was there against his will.
I was hoping today that the police would clear it up but no. They said there was a doctor's order on Randy which GPC did not tell me nor show me. There was nothing wrong with Randy to prevent him from going home for a few hours or from going to another hospital. What planet did the doctor come from. I am sure it only said to watch Randy more carefully for a week or two. It would not say that he couldn't leave GPC as that would be illegal. A doctor's order is not a jail sentence. Randy can come and go when he pleases.
Randy was terrified yesterday and also today when I couldn't see him and secure his release for a few hours. I was told that Randy is very depressed and he knows what is going on and he hates everyone at GPC for doing this to me. Randy is competent so he can leave a residential facility anytime he wants.
Randy cannot talk and he has to use a wheelchair as he is a quad so it is easy to imprison him and convince him of things that are not true. The reason Randy does not like it at GPC is that he feels it is not safe. And it is not safe especially if I cannot have access to him. I will forego talking about his injuries sustained at GPC and the quality of life he does not have there until another time..
I am a petite seventy-four years old woman and it seems that I get regularly demeaned.by VCH and their contract employees.
Randy is 57 so he is not old. He just had a bad accident. How can they scare him like they have done for over three years. A man who cannot talk or move.
Years ago the subject of I taking Randy off the grounds of George Pearson Centre went to the VCH Ethics Board and it was determined that Randy had the right to do so. So why now is this again a problem. Prior to this week GPC never cared if Randy was well enough to go off site or not.
During the years prior to the Ethics Board's decision Randy's freedoms were taken away from him as he did not go off site and he never saw the outside for close to two years.
David Ostrow is the CEO of Vancouver Coastal Health and Kip Woodward (604.875.4719)(email: kip.woodward@vch.ca) is its chairman. Kip is the grandson of the Woodwards Department Store family who built Oakridge..
Also see: seniorsatrisk
email: sar.coalition@gmail.com
Tuesday, October 22, 2013
Monday, October 21, 2013
Slow Code
On Saturday a CBC radio program talked about SLOW CODES. I was shocked that CBC allowed this to air. Not because I agreed or disagreed with it but rather it rang true with what Dr. Kermit Gosnell said that a medical licence was a licence to lie.
Listen to it. It does not create confidence in medical directives/public policy..
www.cbc.ca/whitecoat
SLOW CODE
.
.
Listen to it. It does not create confidence in medical directives/public policy..
www.cbc.ca/whitecoat
SLOW CODE
.
.
Friday, October 18, 2013
Cutherbertson v Rasouli
EPC applauds the decision of the Supreme Court of Canada (18 October 2013) Cutherbertson V Rasouli.
who upheld the unanimous decision of the Ontario Court of Appeal requiring that doctors obtain consent from patients or substitute decision-makers before withdrawing life-sustaining treatment where such a decision is anticipated to result in the death of the patient.
The doctors argued withdrawing life-sustaining measures did not require consent from Rasouli’s wife, his surrogate decision-maker, because discontinuing care did not constitute “treatment” as set out under Ontario’s law. For the same reason, the doctors said, they did not require permission from the province’s Consent and Capacity Board to end care.
Mrs. Rasouli is pennyless like all of us who are at odds with the medical community. Please send money to her lawyer to help her. She has made legal history with no financial support from us the citizens of Canada. Why is it that she has to live in poverty so that the rest of us can benefit.
Hugh Scher
Scher Law Professional Corporation
175 Bloor Street East
Suite 1803, South Tower
Toronto, ON M4W 3R8
Telephone: 416.515.9686
Direct: 416.969.1812
Fax: 416.969.1815see Euthanasia Prevention Coalition
.
Sunday, October 13, 2013
LAWER
Paragraph 153 October 10 2013 Appeal of Judge Smith's judgment for assisted suicide.
{153} Counsel for the Attorney General of Canada argued that evidence from jurisdictions which allow physician-assisted dying demonstrate that safeguards are insufficient to prevent abuse. Specifically, the Attorney General of Canada pointed to evidence of what was referred to as "life-ending acts without explicit request" or "LAWER" as evidence of how safeguards are ineffective. LAWER occurs when a physician takes steps to end a patient's life without first obtaining necessary consent.
.
{153} Counsel for the Attorney General of Canada argued that evidence from jurisdictions which allow physician-assisted dying demonstrate that safeguards are insufficient to prevent abuse. Specifically, the Attorney General of Canada pointed to evidence of what was referred to as "life-ending acts without explicit request" or "LAWER" as evidence of how safeguards are ineffective. LAWER occurs when a physician takes steps to end a patient's life without first obtaining necessary consent.
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Friday, October 11, 2013
TerrieLincoln
Terrie's Lincoln's story
For
several months, I’ve been polishing the story of my recovery from the
accident that brought me into the world of disability. Until recently, I
hadn’t talked much about this period of my life. The memories can
still make me angry. The anger isn’t about my disability, though. The
anger is about the doctors that didn’t think I would have a life worth
living – and how hard my family had to fight to make sure I received the
treatment I needed to survive.
Folks at CDR and Not Dead Yet (NDY) have been discussing how and when to best launch this story when an opportunity unexpectedly came up. Stephen Drake of NDY was contacted by someone from “How We Die,” a website and TV series devoted to “end of life” situations. After a discussion with Stephen, the representative from the show became convinced that stories like mine should be included – the stories of people who escaped death due to families that resisted unrelenting pressure from medical staff to disconnect life support technology.
Information on the website is included below. They want more stories like mine and I know they’re out there. Please submit your stories of “near death” experiences due to negative medical attitudes – to the website below, to me and to Stephen Drake at Not Dead Yet.
How I DIDN’T Die
by Terrie Lincoln
If my family had listened to the doctors 12 years ago, I wouldn’t be able to tell you my story.
My name is Terrie Lincoln and I am a 31 year old quadriplegic. I live in Rochester, New York and work as a Systems Advocate at the Regional Center for Independent Living. I have a degree in social services and a bachelor’s degree in public administration. I am currently working on my master’s in social work.
At the age of 19, I had an automobile accident. They had to use the Jaws of Life to free me from the wreck and rush me to the hospital. After I got there, my family and friends learned I severed my spine and broke my neck. At that moment I had no idea what was wrong with me, since I was in shock and slipping in and out of a coma.
I was air-lifted to a nearby hospital in West Virginia a few hours later. The doctors then told my parents they were going to do emergency surgery on my neck — a neck fusion. They had to put a plate in my neck. The doctors also told my parents while I was being prepped that there was no way I could survive a broken neck. They said nobody lives with a broken neck. My Mom said: “We’ll see about that.”
The surgery turned out well and I started recuperating. While I was lying in the hospital bed that did not rotate because they did not want to injure me more, the doctors would come in and ask my mom if she was ready to pull the plug on me. “Why would I want to do that?” she would ask? The doctors answered, “What kind of life will she have— she won’t. She won’t be able to dance, walk, work, have a social life, or be independent.”
My mom, being the strong woman she is, asked the doctor if he would pull the plug on his own son/daughter. He walked out without answering. The next day when the doctor came in my dad was there with my mom. The doctor informed us that I was going to be in a veggie state for the rest of my life. First of all, who uses the word “veggie”? Anyway, my dad asked what veggie I was going to be because I hated green beans and would be mad if I was one.
The doctor said he didn’t find that funny and felt it was inappropriate. My mom said she felt he was being inappropriate by coming in every day and telling her to pull the plug on her daughter. The doctor responded that any good mother would pull the plug instead of seeing their baby suffer. At that moment, my mom leaped over my bed attacking the doctor.
The doctors must have known they were fighting a battle they were not going to win. They knew they were killing me slowly with the lack of care I was receiving. Within fifteen days of being there, I had no bowel movement (they were scared to roll me), aspirated, had pneumonia, and collapsed lungs which they did not want to focus on at the moment. I was life flighted out on the fifteenth day.
Once I arrived in Columbus, OH we felt I was on my way to recovery. I had a new team of doctors who specialized in spinal cord injuries. The relationships with the doctors started off more positive than the last set until the first time I died, which was about 3 weeks after I arrived. I was a code blue and they resuscitated me but didn’t offer any suggestions on how to inflate my lungs or help me breathe.
Over the weeks I got worse and worse. Pneumonia was causing my lungs to fill and I was constantly flat lining (electrical time sequence measurement that shows no heart activity). The team of doctors asked: do you want to pull the plug? They said you could take her off her feeding tube and we could induce her into a coma and she won’t suffer.
It took my mom following one of the doctors around all day and to his car at the end of his shift to get him to open up and talk. She went into his office and grabbed a picture of his family and held it up to him and asked, “What would you do? Would you let them pull the plug on the one you loved without doing everything you could?”
My mom came back to my room and I remember seeing her cry for the first time. She held my hand, said a prayer, and promised me everything would be OK. She said she would fight to the end even if she had to tear the hospital apart.
The doctors came in the next morning earlier than usual and told us they were prepping me for surgery. My mom asked what kind. He said he couldn’t sleep the night before because of her and he was going to put me on a ventilator, which would breathe for me. When I got out of surgery they had a rotating bed waiting for me. The bed helped with weight shifts and shook — to help break up the stuff in my lungs.
After a matter of weeks, my health started improving. I had color back, no bed sores, regular bowel movements, and my pneumonia was improving. I got released after 3 months from the main hospital to a nursing home within the hospital. This section was for people who were in poor condition (not expected to make it) and those who had to live with a ventilator.
During the time I was there I shocked everyone. I refused to have my feeding tube, G-tube, and J-tube anymore. I was tired of being poked and going in and out of surgery for no reason. I felt safer and healthier having the tubes out instead of in.
We started working on goals and weaning off the ventilator. We knew my health was improving and we were thanking Jesus every day. I was spending hours a day off the ventilator and the doctors were still asking if I wanted to live the rest of my life with this condition. If I chose no, they would keep me off the ventilator and I would die. I could get injected with Morphine so I couldn’t feel it.
They’d work at my parents, saying things like: “Your daughter was so active before this accident and now she’s nothing. She’s just like Christopher Reeve, she will need help with everything, she won’t be able to push her own chair. She will have to use a sip and puff device.”
Then they’d work on me. Saying stuff like: “Are you sure this is something you can live with? Do you want to spend the rest of your life on a ventilator?”
These are all the things we heard every day even though my health was improving. What gives them the right to convince someone to end their life?
My respiratory therapist said when I get off the ventilator completely I could go to physical therapy. One Friday we did our daily disconnecting of the ventilator – but this time we never connected it back. I ended up staying off of the ventilator for good.
Weeks later I started therapy and eventually got discharged after 5 months of being in the hospital. When I returned for my follow-up appointment a year later I made it a priority to see that team of doctors. When I rolled into the offices pushing my own power chair, without a ventilator, and healthy as can be, their jaws dropped to the floor and their eyes began to fill with tears.
Through my journey, I could not have done it without my two biggest advocates—Jesus and my mommy. She never stopped fighting from day one and never took no for an answer.
TV Series and Website Seeking Stories on How We Die
A new Website and TV series is looking for first-person stories from patients, their families, loved ones, and doctors about how personal experiences have shaped what we believe about death and dying, and about the decisions we make for ourselves, for loved ones, or for patients at the end of life. The website is: http://how-we-die.org/HowWeDie
The series, tentatively titled “Stories,” is being developed by Marc N. Weiss, creator of the long-running PBS series P.O.V. and Tom Yellin, a veteran network news and public affairs producer. The series will explore experiences that tested or challenged their values and beliefs about who decides when and how we die, and what role, if any, government and healthcare institutions should play in those decisions. Visit the site and submit your story!http://how-we-die.org/HowWeDie
.
For
several months, I’ve been polishing the story of my recovery from the
accident that brought me into the world of disability. Until recently, I
hadn’t talked much about this period of my life. The memories can
still make me angry. The anger isn’t about my disability, though. The
anger is about the doctors that didn’t think I would have a life worth
living – and how hard my family had to fight to make sure I received the
treatment I needed to survive.Folks at CDR and Not Dead Yet (NDY) have been discussing how and when to best launch this story when an opportunity unexpectedly came up. Stephen Drake of NDY was contacted by someone from “How We Die,” a website and TV series devoted to “end of life” situations. After a discussion with Stephen, the representative from the show became convinced that stories like mine should be included – the stories of people who escaped death due to families that resisted unrelenting pressure from medical staff to disconnect life support technology.
Information on the website is included below. They want more stories like mine and I know they’re out there. Please submit your stories of “near death” experiences due to negative medical attitudes – to the website below, to me and to Stephen Drake at Not Dead Yet.
How I DIDN’T Die
by Terrie Lincoln
If my family had listened to the doctors 12 years ago, I wouldn’t be able to tell you my story.
My name is Terrie Lincoln and I am a 31 year old quadriplegic. I live in Rochester, New York and work as a Systems Advocate at the Regional Center for Independent Living. I have a degree in social services and a bachelor’s degree in public administration. I am currently working on my master’s in social work.
At the age of 19, I had an automobile accident. They had to use the Jaws of Life to free me from the wreck and rush me to the hospital. After I got there, my family and friends learned I severed my spine and broke my neck. At that moment I had no idea what was wrong with me, since I was in shock and slipping in and out of a coma.
I was air-lifted to a nearby hospital in West Virginia a few hours later. The doctors then told my parents they were going to do emergency surgery on my neck — a neck fusion. They had to put a plate in my neck. The doctors also told my parents while I was being prepped that there was no way I could survive a broken neck. They said nobody lives with a broken neck. My Mom said: “We’ll see about that.”
The surgery turned out well and I started recuperating. While I was lying in the hospital bed that did not rotate because they did not want to injure me more, the doctors would come in and ask my mom if she was ready to pull the plug on me. “Why would I want to do that?” she would ask? The doctors answered, “What kind of life will she have— she won’t. She won’t be able to dance, walk, work, have a social life, or be independent.”
My mom, being the strong woman she is, asked the doctor if he would pull the plug on his own son/daughter. He walked out without answering. The next day when the doctor came in my dad was there with my mom. The doctor informed us that I was going to be in a veggie state for the rest of my life. First of all, who uses the word “veggie”? Anyway, my dad asked what veggie I was going to be because I hated green beans and would be mad if I was one.
The doctor said he didn’t find that funny and felt it was inappropriate. My mom said she felt he was being inappropriate by coming in every day and telling her to pull the plug on her daughter. The doctor responded that any good mother would pull the plug instead of seeing their baby suffer. At that moment, my mom leaped over my bed attacking the doctor.
The doctors must have known they were fighting a battle they were not going to win. They knew they were killing me slowly with the lack of care I was receiving. Within fifteen days of being there, I had no bowel movement (they were scared to roll me), aspirated, had pneumonia, and collapsed lungs which they did not want to focus on at the moment. I was life flighted out on the fifteenth day.
Once I arrived in Columbus, OH we felt I was on my way to recovery. I had a new team of doctors who specialized in spinal cord injuries. The relationships with the doctors started off more positive than the last set until the first time I died, which was about 3 weeks after I arrived. I was a code blue and they resuscitated me but didn’t offer any suggestions on how to inflate my lungs or help me breathe.
Over the weeks I got worse and worse. Pneumonia was causing my lungs to fill and I was constantly flat lining (electrical time sequence measurement that shows no heart activity). The team of doctors asked: do you want to pull the plug? They said you could take her off her feeding tube and we could induce her into a coma and she won’t suffer.
It took my mom following one of the doctors around all day and to his car at the end of his shift to get him to open up and talk. She went into his office and grabbed a picture of his family and held it up to him and asked, “What would you do? Would you let them pull the plug on the one you loved without doing everything you could?”
My mom came back to my room and I remember seeing her cry for the first time. She held my hand, said a prayer, and promised me everything would be OK. She said she would fight to the end even if she had to tear the hospital apart.
The doctors came in the next morning earlier than usual and told us they were prepping me for surgery. My mom asked what kind. He said he couldn’t sleep the night before because of her and he was going to put me on a ventilator, which would breathe for me. When I got out of surgery they had a rotating bed waiting for me. The bed helped with weight shifts and shook — to help break up the stuff in my lungs.
After a matter of weeks, my health started improving. I had color back, no bed sores, regular bowel movements, and my pneumonia was improving. I got released after 3 months from the main hospital to a nursing home within the hospital. This section was for people who were in poor condition (not expected to make it) and those who had to live with a ventilator.
During the time I was there I shocked everyone. I refused to have my feeding tube, G-tube, and J-tube anymore. I was tired of being poked and going in and out of surgery for no reason. I felt safer and healthier having the tubes out instead of in.
We started working on goals and weaning off the ventilator. We knew my health was improving and we were thanking Jesus every day. I was spending hours a day off the ventilator and the doctors were still asking if I wanted to live the rest of my life with this condition. If I chose no, they would keep me off the ventilator and I would die. I could get injected with Morphine so I couldn’t feel it.
They’d work at my parents, saying things like: “Your daughter was so active before this accident and now she’s nothing. She’s just like Christopher Reeve, she will need help with everything, she won’t be able to push her own chair. She will have to use a sip and puff device.”
Then they’d work on me. Saying stuff like: “Are you sure this is something you can live with? Do you want to spend the rest of your life on a ventilator?”
These are all the things we heard every day even though my health was improving. What gives them the right to convince someone to end their life?
My respiratory therapist said when I get off the ventilator completely I could go to physical therapy. One Friday we did our daily disconnecting of the ventilator – but this time we never connected it back. I ended up staying off of the ventilator for good.
Weeks later I started therapy and eventually got discharged after 5 months of being in the hospital. When I returned for my follow-up appointment a year later I made it a priority to see that team of doctors. When I rolled into the offices pushing my own power chair, without a ventilator, and healthy as can be, their jaws dropped to the floor and their eyes began to fill with tears.
Through my journey, I could not have done it without my two biggest advocates—Jesus and my mommy. She never stopped fighting from day one and never took no for an answer.
TV Series and Website Seeking Stories on How We Die
A new Website and TV series is looking for first-person stories from patients, their families, loved ones, and doctors about how personal experiences have shaped what we believe about death and dying, and about the decisions we make for ourselves, for loved ones, or for patients at the end of life. The website is: http://how-we-die.org/HowWeDie
The series, tentatively titled “Stories,” is being developed by Marc N. Weiss, creator of the long-running PBS series P.O.V. and Tom Yellin, a veteran network news and public affairs producer. The series will explore experiences that tested or challenged their values and beliefs about who decides when and how we die, and what role, if any, government and healthcare institutions should play in those decisions. Visit the site and submit your story!http://how-we-die.org/HowWeDie
.
Monday, September 30, 2013
A Lament
Since Randy has been in hospital the minutes seem like hours, the hours like days, the days like weeks, the weeks like month and each month a year. Time means nothing and you become numb with exhaustion making you indifferent. You wait and wait and wait. But wait for what. I do not know. It seems that you are in a vortex with no end except for flashback memories of the difficult times that are now remembered as the best of times as there is nothing else to remember.
.
.
Wednesday, September 25, 2013
A repeat of April 1 2011 blog
For those of you who are new to my blog I would ask that you read the blog CIVIL RIGHTS NOW written by a former resident of GPC. After reading the section on GPC would you allow anyone you know to live there. Randy has been forced to live at GPC although upon each admission to acute he has opposed returning to GPC and acute would return him against his objections. And what would Randy do as soon as he realized the trickery, he would pull out his trach. VCH won't even tell him or me. They just would grab him and move him. Last year VCH moved him on Christmas Eve although I was told that he would not be moved until after Christmas week. They just beat you up and you have to keep taking it over and over and over again.
Friday, April 1, 2011 Post from Gone Ballistic: nothing has changed much
Marion was the manager of GPC, and Bob Chapman the Director of Risk Management.
Rather than create an atmosphere of residents wanting to live, they create an atmosphere of secrecy, fear and terror I face with each day worrying that Randy will not get the care he should be getting.m It has nothing to do with resources; it has everything to do with attitude of nurses who have their heads up their bums and they forget that their job is to be advocates for patients.
Marion, I got a piece of paper signed by Randy today
saying that he wants to see me everyday like I have been for nine months. You
better have a very good explanation as to why this is impossible. It is very
clear to me that you would have let Randy die rather than allow me to visit
Randy except on your restrictive unreasonable terms.
"on Fri, 4/1/11, Biln, Marion [VA] wrote:
From: Biln, Marion [VA]
Subject: Re: audreyjanelaferriere
To: "'audreylaferriere@yahoo.ca'"
Received: Friday, April 1, 2011, 5:31 PM
Audrey, I do appreciate that you would like to be at GPC during those times but
that is not possible
We will need to keep to the original plan of monday, tuesday,friday from 1-4
I will let Kate know that you are interested in getting training in suctioning
Marion Biln
From: Audrey Jane Laferriere [mailto:audreylaferriere@yahoo.ca]
Sent: Friday, April 01, 2011 12:16 PM
To: Biln, Marion [VA]
Subject: RE: audreyjanelaferriere
The second situation was created by Bob by his failure to quickly end the
malicious gossip and bullying caused by your staff, residents and visitors.
"on Fri, 4/1/11, Biln, Marion [VA] wrote:
From: Biln, Marion [VA]
Subject: Re: audreyjanelaferriere
To: "'audreylaferriere@yahoo.ca'"
Received: Friday, April 1, 2011, 5:31 PM
Audrey, I do appreciate that you would like to be at GPC during those times but that is not possible
We will need to keep to the original plan of monday, tuesday,friday from 1-4
I will let Kate know that you are interested in getting training in suctioning
Marion Biln
From: Audrey Jane Laferriere [mailto:audreylaferriere@yahoo.ca]
Sent: Friday, April 01, 2011 12:16 PM
To: Biln, Marion [VA]
Subject: RE: audreyjanelaferriere
The second situation was created by Bob by his failure to quickly end the malicious gossip and bullying caused by your staff, residents and visitors.
Next week I am free during the daylight hours so I will be wanting to visit Randy each weekday from 9:00 to 4:00. I want to visit him in the ward so I can interact with his nursing staff to satisfy myself that he is getting the mandated care and also tend to his entertainment, educational and physio needs. Considering the dire state of health care dollars, I know you will welcome any assistance I can give. It was agreed that your RT would train me to suction Randy so this coming week would be a good time to begin the training.
Your security can accompany me and stand guard as long as they are standing and not sitting. Do not worry I will not call out if Joy is choking to death and there is no one on the floor to come to her aid.
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