morphine given too randomly in elderly patients!

If they had withheld pain medication, you would have sued them for that.

I have been fighting to have my mother's actual health issues treated in a nursing home - infections, dehydration, not eating because of a hiatal hernia, gas - it is ridiculuous how willing they are to sedate but not treat

Being an RN when my 97 year old mom was nearing the end of her life, I had hospice and PUSHED for the Morphine. My mother stopped eating on her own for 7 days and then was unable to drink any liquids due to choking. My mother was dying and I KNEW it. She was bedbound and could not even turn over by herself. She had had 24 hour caregivers for the past two years after she suffered a couple of strokes. I asked her if she knew what was going on and she whispered in a very weak voice, "I am dying and it is OK". She just gave up and it was time for her to go. I would do the same exact thing over again if I had to. She died a VERY peaceful death with Morphine even though she did not have lots of pain. She also got some liquid Ativan under the tongue to make her very calm...I held her hand as she went. Her last words to me when she was still able to speak were, "I love you". I had told her I was going to start Morphine on her...she knew what that meant...and she said..."I know, it's ok". She was on Morphine for 4 days....worst days to watch for me...NOT for her...again she was very peaceful....So she went a total of almost 12 days with no food or fluid...I would much rather give my mother Morphine and have her be totally out of it as she dies then to have her suffer in any way just so I can still talk to her...That in itself is a selfish reason to keep someone going. RIP mom.....

I must reply here. I am an RN for 30 years. My 98 year old mother suffered a stroke 2 years ago and died in March 2015...Yes, last month. She was almost bedbound and had to be totally lifted out into a W/C to eat. 2 weeks before her death she just stopped eating. Due to this she got weaker and weaker. She then was unable to drink water or fluids. I tried and she choked. She was unable to turn over in bed without total care. She had 24 hour caregivers at her home and I moved in with her the past 2 years after her stroke to oversee her care. I might add I grabbed the BEST CNA's from the hospital for her in home care so I knew these girls for years that I worked with them. My mom would cry and ask why old people have to live like this. She had ONLY slight pain when turning in her legs. After she stopped eating for 7 days.....and I tried to feed her, her favorite foods to no avail... I gave her a Vicodin crushed up in pudding. She suffered from moderate Dementia as well and got very agitated at times. I also gave her 0.5mg Ativan pill. I knew when I started the Vicodin that this was going to be the end. BUT after she wouldn't eat for 7 days and knowing she was dying...WHY the hell NOT give her something. I just can NOT understand people who would rather their loved ones stay and linger JUST so YOU can still talk to them? She took Vicodin for ONE day and I had hospice...(hospice was on board for the past 5 months but NO medication was given) start her on Morphine and liquid Ativan. She was no longer even able to get a teaspoon of water down her. I asked her if she knew what was going on. She said, "I am dying and it's ok". She also knew what Morphine was for and I told her I needed to give her this. Again she said, "I know, it's OK". On day 7, I told her I knew it was uncomfortable to have such a dry mouth and not be able to swallow water. She said, "It's really not that bad". That surprised me a bit but I was happy she was not suffering. My mom and I had said everything we were going to say to each other. I apologized for anything I did in the past, thanked her for giving me a great life and told her I loved her. Her last spoken words to me were, "I love you". At this point I had hospice give her large doses of Morphine as ordered. I wanted her to have ZERO discomfort and not know what was going on. This was one of the HARDEST things I have had to do in my life. To watch her die for 11 days....Hard for me, NOT hard for her....I knew if she was dehydrated there was more the risk for an MI and that would have been horrible for her to have an acute MI and have NO pain meds on board. I also knew her breathing would get labored and Morphine would help this.
Her respirations got worse and she needed nebulizers and was up to 02 at 10 liters/mask. Morphine also eased her breathing and she passed away with ZERO discomfort..Totally out of it. I held her hand as she died...telling her I loved her.....I would do it again the exact way in a heart beat. PLEASE people let your loved ones go in peace. WHAT is the difference if you give large doses of Morphine even if they are NOT in great pain????? THEY ARE DYING....do you have so much guilt that you just can't let your people go????? Nothing was going to bring my mom back....so I did what I had to do and let her go....2 little breaths after 4 days on Morphine and she went....ZERO discomfort in her own bed.
And for all you nurses out there thinking how horrible it is to give large doses of Morphine..OMG.....hope you are not MY nurse one day when I am on my way out. I miss my mom everyday but know I did what I HAD to do at the end. I promised her this......

Liar burn in hell

What type of vitamin supplements did you give your mom? My mother-in-law is 92, 2 weeks ago she had a partial hip replacement, she is still given morphine and another med for pain. She lays in bed just staring, incoherent. She is in a long term care, we told them to take her off morphine, she's still on it. She cries, afraid, not always in pain. The dementia has gotten worse.

Killing old people with dilauded

Happens all the time.

My grandmother was put on hospice yesterday, guy came in a van, came in and sat down started going thru her meds logging them into his computer. The fealing in the air was that of the hazmat guys in E.T coming in my home. He talked for awhile and I realized man this guy has said the word morphine twenty times in 10 min. It was super weird. Then she comes home in a ambulance just doped outta her mind actually still is as I wright this. Before this trip to the hospital not once has morphine been brought in the past five years of many doctors visits. It feals bad inside me flags and alarms are ringing in my head!!!? I mean what the f**k is going on and wtf do I do? More importantly who runs this hospice death train place.

I have lost all respect for hospitals.After a routine procedure,he did not wake up for two days, and once he woke up they did not give him decent amount of time to recover from too much anesthesia, not happy with his progress after 3 days icu ,then sent to lower level care same place, killed him a few days later with morphine,not bothering to tell family members what was going on.I saw my father alive at 1am ,said see ya soon, 2 hours later ,he was dead, never complained of any pain, other than the usual soreness everyone experiences now and then, he was elderly, had copd,was not in good health, but certainly did not want to die at the hospital,he had already signed the discharge papers and planned to go to stay in facility to get better/stronger if possible,and could have been around for a while longer, we will never know because of the lousy,ignorant and negligence felt and experienced from the staff on hand that was ordered to speed up the plan to get my dad out of there,and make our stockholders happy, forgot to mention, he fell out of his bed after the morphine, oxygen came out of nose, and died on the floor.How long was he on the floor? great question! but that is how my dad died, so so wrong, I feel for everyone that has experienced anything like this, they do not care about people,they care about the bottom line , dont be fooled ,ask tons of questions dont let them talk about any treatment plans, it cost my dad precious time with family everyone was looking forward to but because they had their own agenda, they chose to kill him off and leave a lot of unanswered questions,dont trust hospitals , they do not care about you like they care about money, people should be in prison and do not deserve to have that kind of authority to kill people because they are not healing fast enough , no respect for people that ordered killing of my father, you are s**m of the earth and have no more time to waste on you and your poor decisions made in Tacoma WA. Healthcare coverage in the USA is of poor quality and getting worse ,I am so tired of this negative experience and what is has done , unforgivable

The same thing happened to my mama just a month ago the doctor killed my mother with morphine I wished I had taken her home maybe she would be alive today

This is preposterous. I'm a physician and your ignorance of hospice , which means the patient is DYING deprived your loved one of an easier, more compassionate death. To "warn" anyone else not to use hospice care for a dying loved one is criminal. Morphine and related opioids do just about zero of the things so many posters including yourself say.

You are making a scapegoat out of something incredibly valuable to medicine, cancer patients and those in extremely painful end of life situations. We dread relatives with no medical knowledge making specious allegations. Luckily, the vast, vast majority of family members that have a family member in hospice are overjoyed that they have a means to slip quietly away. If a patient is directed to hospice, organs are already showing signs of shutting down, that's a pre-requisite. There is no brain wave with or without morphine that signals the hunger response nor can most swallow nor process ANY food or water.

All physicians beg families with patients 60 and over to make Living Wills. I'm appalled that a few of these posters took their family from hospice (and appalled at the minority of nurses that feel badly pushing high doses of morphine, you obviously do not understand pharmacologically how these medications work on the molecular level).

Hospice is where every doctor I know would want to be with copious amounts of pain relief. These days, anything less is cruel and unusual.

Sedation in nursing homes is another topic. Bring in your own, independent medical doctor to confer with the staff physician and find the reason this protocol was taken.

And lastly, this class of drugs provide much more good and are the reason the quality of life is raised for so many (e g mothers with young children with terminal breast cancer). In non terminal cases, follow directions and do not take when recovered or taper. Do not blame a drug that even non-terminal patients need (fused vertebra, migraine sufferers etc) because your cousin's uncle's friends became addicted. And as for cancer patients who are "technically" addicted? So what? They're dying, we took an oath to do what was right for the patient. It's frightening his many here didn't want their loved ones to have a pain free death.

Get educated before spouting absolute nonsense and slanderous accusations about the gem that is hospice care where most nurses are incredibly compassionate and intelligent. Obviously from some of the postings, not all. If you are an RN uncomfortable with our prescribed protocol that is designed after thousands of hours of painstaking research and years of study that you have only a sliver of, please leave the profession to the professionals. I know nurses smarter than some doctors but they are rare, but most RN's are special people (speaking of hospice) .

As for the other complaints, morphine is not the culprit. Ignorance is.

As a physician I say GOOD FOR YOU. You get it. Thank you. It's been appalling to read basically selfish or ignorant people blame the medical establishment and morphine for their loved ones deaths. It's cruel, when this protocol exists, to deny the pain killing attributes. True, they will not hold your hand and tell you how dear you are to them because when in hospice that means DYING. So do the right thing and let them slip away, pain free when their body finally shuts down. Ativan is also commonly given as an adjunct for calm, because its a good thing. Death isn't pretty but with the assistance of this hospice protocol it can be 90% easier on the patient.

My husband was murdered by hospice a year ago. He had cancer and was having anxiety. I took him to the hospital where they put him on Ativan and Morphine. Since he was so medicated I was afraid he would fall at home and I by myself wouldn't be able to lift him. Hospice came in and assured me he wouldn't fall and they would keep him comfortable. I thought this arrangement would be temporary. He had not stopped eating and drinking but was taken off his regular meds right away, they said he couldn't swallow. He could swallow. He fell the first night and they gave him Haldol for no reason and without telling me. They did not tell me he was acting psychotic. They did not explain side effects of drugs. They gave him Ativan and Morphine and he was unconscious for 3 1/2 days the last day there a nurse came in and doubled his dose of Morphine for no reason. I have a facebook group Murdered By Hospice trying to bring awareness to people about what is being done there.

Dont sgree t give Morphine,it slows down Heart Rate and Kills the Patient.