Back to the little girl: She has no idea what the words she hoists so proudly mean. She may as well be holding a Che Guevara sign. Her parents must have told her that Big Bad Obama wants to deny her oatmeal-cookie making grandma health care simply because she is old. The Karma you send out tonight may bite you and your parents in the behind little girl. However, I pray that your grandma will pass quickly in her sleep, not to be found until morning so she will not have to suffer the pain and indignity of ICU care. I pray that you never see her with a tube shoved into her throat forcing oxygen into her lungs. The tube will make her lips dry out, chap and bleed. The ventilator will make her chest rise and fall making you believe she is alive. She'll need a feeding tube to eat, a bladder tube to pee, and a rectal tube to prevent diarrhea from burning her bottom. The doctor will cut her neck to place a large IV with three separate openings for continuous cardiac medicine which constitutes a 24-hour code blue. With this therapy, she'll linger in the ICU for months before her frail body gives out. She'll be immobile, dependent on the nurse, or your mom, to moisturize her skin, swab her mouth, and change her position to prevent a crater forming in her ass.
Not many have seen what I, and my fellow nurses, have seen. Not many have caused the pain that I, and my fellow nurses, have caused. Not many have wished they could give an overdose or morphine which I, and my fellow nurses, have wished. Not even the family or the physician can appreciate the torment people feel at the end of their lives. Family and doctors visit for ten minutes at a time. The nurse holds a 24 hour vigil at the beside.
Obama wants Americans to do now, what we should have done 20 years ago during the boom of life-prolonging technology: Talk about our wishes. To be counseled on end-of-life care. He wants healthcare to honor the patient's living will, even when the children on the other side of the country disagree. When one fill out the health care proxy or the living will they think they are safe from barbaric heroic measures. Not the case. One dissension among your next-of-kin and they will lubricate the tracheal tube. And you'll be the little girl's grandma: trapped in your head, unable to scream.
Obama's plan does not mean one will be denied heroic measures if they want everything pound of medical care. The plan wants us to be informed and make our own decisions without our family's input should that be our choice. If you want everything done come on down; I'll get my tubes ready. The extra money will come from the millions not spent on those who'd rather slip away in peace.
