morphine given too randomly in elderly patients!

Thank you for your thoughts on this unbelievable issue. I always thought they would "first do no harm". I feel in my heart that they played God that night, and God will get them. I really wish I hadn't left her alone that night. I will live with that guilt forever. But I will be a voice for other elderly patients that have a right to die naturally, in their time, not the so-called health providers time. My Mom worked all her life and paid into social security. All her brothers, along with my dad, fought in WWII. I just can't believe we have evolved into a nation that doesn't care about the elderly, and just wants to put them out of their misery. Who are they to decide that??? How dare they!! We were told 3 years ago that she wasn't going to make it because she just has so much wrong. She told all of them she would not only make it, but go to my nieces wedding in Austin. They all just gave a sad smile and told her that would be nice. Well, she went to that wedding and danced her feet off...just one month after they had her dead. I'm going to put the video on YouTube so people can see what near death looks like. And warn people that nurses and doctors seem more concerned with playing God than caring for these very special people. After all, do they know what will happen tomorrow? I don't think so. I hope you find ease with your issues of guilt. Thank you for sharing.

God Bless you in this fight. Thank God you have seen the light before they take him away from you. Keep fighting for him, no matter what. It will get tough, and it can be exhausting. Don't take matters into your own hands. There is help out there. Find an advocacy group for the elderly, and maybe get a lawyer. Do not trust the idea of "life care". They will try to kill him there also. My prayers are with you and your family.

Morphine killed my Dad before his time. He was 95 and told to join Hospice because he had an early diagnosis of melanoma. One night He WALKED to the nurses station of the extended care facility and asked for something to help him sleep. There was nothing in his chart but morphine because he had done what he was told and signed up for hospice and told them to go away until he needed them. He was not dying. But the stupid CNA decided to initiate their morphine. I could not reach him on the phone for 4 days because they continued to give him morphine when he would rouse. After he had 7.5 morphine he was so confused a neighbor called and said something was terrible wrong with my beloved Dad. But it was too late. I got there in time to detox him and spend the next 3 weeks watching him die of kidney failure. May the CNA that decided to give him his first dose of morphine before the hospice doctor ever even evaluated him rot in hell. I miss my Dad. He was a very special guy. This happened in Bakersfield ca

Mother  was admitted via emergency room with fracture pelvis was given small doses of morphine within 24 hrs she suffer from acute respiratory failure with hypercapnia they changed the pain medication which didn't help it took them over 48 hours to figure out to avoid narcotics because of severe respiratory depression. 

 

Keeping this short, as much as I would like to give detailed and read the death of both my father and mother with overdoses of morphine. Just last week, my friend's husband was sedated to death with morphine after his dementia caused him to become combative with staff. This is a cruel and common practice with nursing homes and hospice, it should be stopped!

I totally agree. My mom has been on Hospice on and off since 2007. She is at her last stages now, but NO morphine. She is in no pain and we refuse for them to give her morphine. 2 times they gave it to her was too much and we had to take her tot he hospital for morphine overdose. Had to switch Hospice's due to that. They did not like it at all. Oh, well. She is still alive. We are tired of people saying she had a good life. She is still alive and at her apartment with my sister at her side.

I agree Pembrooke but I can not get anyone to listen. I have been to the DA, department of Health and Human Services, Department of Justice, television investigative reporters and attorney's no one is willing to help me.
My mother was recruited into a hospice which is highly illegal and I still can't get help or even anyone to listen to me.

my father died less than two days after we put him in hospice home, he trusted them, they were told by his family not to put him on morphine, they did anyway, less than 15 hours my dad was unable to talk to us, he was totally normal when we left = we told them to take him off the morphine and put him back on his regular pain meds, they wouldn't listen, they did drop it down to 2mg-in a few hours he was coming back to us,talking but tired. the next morning he was out of it and dying- he died a few minutes later. he went in two pm on wed, we left him at 600pm -normal, Thursday moring unresponsive, lowered morphine Thursday night he was awake and talking, Friday morning dead. hospice kill my 79 year old father

I wonder why you can't get anyone to listen . . . Is it that the Hospice and medical lobby are given too much credit for knowing what is right? Do they have incredible financial influence?? My question is, why? I know some of the individuals in the medical field are ethical people. However, have they have been fed a line of lies that morphine is "compassionate"? What they are doing is in other contexts known as Homicide. At the VA Medical Center in Boise, I personally watched a doctor make a horrific judgement call. that brought me guilt and nightmares for years. My father was breathing on his own, his eyes were closed, but he squeezed my hand and turned his head in the direction of familiar voices. He continued breathing on his own for 40 minutes. Intern doctor dryly states, "If he lives like this, he'll be a vegetable." (No consideration that my father could open up his eyes later, since he was turning his head and squeezing my hand.) The intern then whispered to a nurse, she ran down the hall and came back with a liquid that she inserted into my father's IV. I said, "Is that morphine?" She nodded yes, and I dumbly watched in shock as my father died. So often I wish I had jumped across the bed, yanked the tube, and ordered them to get Naltrexone to block the morphine! This "wish" got repeated for nights on end for years. The weight of having stood by while they killed my father has hurt me terribly, I also had visions of the blood puddle next to his neck, and him not being changed in ICU. I blamed myself as to why I didn't take him to a regular hospital (which I had thought of, but questions about him dying during transport had also been there), where my mother at the same time was in ICU, also had been septic. Thank G-d, she lived for another 6 years, but in the end, was also killed by morphine, unbeknownst to me, topically applied in large quantities. A hospice doctor made that decision, and I discovered the packets of morphine (I still have the evidence) later. No wonder the hospice workers said they would wash her body after she was dead -- I suspect they were washing the evidence. I live with that pain, too. Why did I leave her alone when they brought a massage therapist in? Honestly, I know they are the guilty ones who took my parents lives, but I felt it was my duty to protect and take care of my parents. I was only one person and the medical / hospice establishment is too big. (Yes, wonderful sister sibling did nothing for years, but after the deaths asked only about money, not about her parents. I got all the guilt and responsibility, after two years of listening to condescending put-downs, I signed away my inheritance. She apparently had no conscience, but this is another saga. I needed help in my 10 year journey of care taking, she is happy to say I got it all wrong and didn't keep track of every penny for 10 years. To current caretakers, hire an accountant! Things can get ugly afterward. There will be not one iota of thanks from greedy or angry siblings.) The deaths of my parents weigh on me. But HOSPICE, NURSING HOMES, and HOSPITALS are guilty of systematically taking out our aging population. They are truly committing homicide on a daily basis. Is this what will happen to us if we cannot stay healthy until the time of our deaths? Something is definitely wrong with the system. It is broken, and if money is the issue, then funding compassionate care, perhaps at home instead of hospitals when possible, will help save $. Teaching children and society to care for the aging (see Japan!), instead of tossing them away to for-profit institutions of neglect and under staffing, will help. Something should be done!

I agree. My 90 year old mother is in a nursing home and is being given three "small" doses or morphine a day. I can see how she has gone downhill since that started. Her only pain is that she is drinking too much cranberry juice and has a lot of sugar and acid in her stomach so instead of them controlling the amount of cranberry juice she drinks they give her morphine for the "pain i her stomach". Unfortunately my brother is her primary care contact so no one at the nursing home will listen to anyone else. The morphine will end up killing my Mom and there is nothing that I can do about it. I am sorry for your loss and definitely agree with you that the morphine killed your Dad.

Thank you, Sue. I hope that you can do something about your mom. Perhaps a report to your State agency yhat regulates nursing homes, perhaps convincing your brother to stop the morphine. Your mom needs to be awake and the morphine is decrasing her respiratory rate, therefore her oxygen intake. It will kill her. I hope you will be able to do something, rather than live with questions and guilt after its too late! Thank you for taking the time and care to reply.

If it were not for the Morphine that I take daily I would be dead from the pain.

:-)  Morphine is some 'good sh*t' , i abuse it all i can,,,, weeeeeee!!!!!!   ;-)

My mother was 83 and very independent strong willed woman, Hospice was called in for failure to thrive due to no appetite, she came home and she had round the clock nurses, she had a stroke, when her blood thinner med was reduced, slurred speech, right side affected, I traveled to go see her, visited her for an hour and a half. During that time, her body language was very visual, she acknowledge me by pursing her lips to the side to kiss me on the cheek as I bent near her, she called my daughters name out loud perfectly, my daughter has Downes Syndrome, she is always with me, she also turned her head to the couch where she thought she might be, I sang to her like always and she lifted both forefingers up like a conductor would do directing music. She squeezed my hand tightly and was alert. One hour later, a family member called us for a family meeting to tell us the hospice nurse in going to give Mother Morphine and she will be gone in two days, she is in pain and has anxiety. Once it started, she was comatose, I never had a chance to tell her goodbye. I am having a hard time with this. The caregivers in charge had more to gain from her death than from taking care of her after the stroke. They also had everything arranged by the time me and my sister got there. I am really having a hard time with this. I witnessed no sign of pain or anxiety, I witnessed my Mom happy to see my sister and I, her vitals were good, no signs of pain, like grimacing, verbal alerts or elevated blood pressure. Who plays God in this situation? the information given to hospice from caregivers that want their life back syndrome" who are now aware of the inheritance figure and realize this stroke situation will mean more care for Mother which means more money per month. My sister and I traveled to visit her, we were not prepared for a funeral. Her first family received Less than $600.00 each, her second family received a half million to a million dollars each. Go figure

My 87 yr old mother is slowly dying the doctor said. She has been in the hospital 14 days today. She has trouble breathing and different types of oxygen masks have been tried,she tries to take them off. She has slowed down to almost no food,some milkshakes given by a sqringe ,not much else. her lung is filled or colappsed (doctor said it shows white on film and could be either way ). She cries out "Please i can not take  this ,please help me as she seems to wioither in pain . Mom  also has deminta,severve osto-artritisspelled wrong ) and kidneys slowing down. Some of us (her children want Mom to receive morphine (As our dear  departed dad did ),but the others ,the ones with POa do not .so she withers in pain,only receving teynol for pain ,as that is all they will allow the doctors to giive. What can we do? Is there something else that would ease Mom's pain ? Please let me know,mayybe than  the ones with Power of attorney would let her take it. I love my Mom so much but I do not know what i can do,as I have no legal right .Watch who gets POa over you or a loved one .