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Baby dies a few days before surgery

post #1 of 13
5/23/11 at 3:13pm
Thread Starter 
This is sad. What made me mad is why did people "liked" it on facebook over someones death.

Baby Seth Dies Awaiting Surgery | NBC Chicago
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post #2 of 13
5/23/11 at 3:35pm
Miscommunication. Its like on youtube, you can like/favorite a video about the horrible tragedy recently in Japan because its a good video with coverage and commentary. It doesn't mean you like the tragedy, just the video.

Honestly, it may have been for the best. When it comes to our beloved pets, we use common sense and factor in quality of life when deciding for or against surgery. When it comes to people, we always give the surgery no matter how horrible the quality of life will be in seemingly total disregard for the amount of suffering endured by the patient. I've seen some documentaries of children that have had to endure surgeries almost every month of their lives with constantly painful and disfiguring defects. This baby apparently would have had a very compromised immune system for life and possibly had to live on a ventilator, and typically tissue transplants don't last long and often suffer rejection. Death is a tragedy, but IMO its not fair to subject any innocent to a life like that.
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post #3 of 13
5/23/11 at 4:25pm
Thread Starter 
But if we give the decision to euthanize our pets for something tragic like this then why not people. I mean I don't want no body to be put to sleep, I'm just saying. Instead of suffering, can they just do the same thing as they do to the animals?
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post #4 of 13
5/23/11 at 5:07pm
That would be a veryvery slippery slope. You can't go around killing people against their will because YOU think their life isn't worth living. If a person is incapacitated (or too young to give consent), how do you know what they want? How do you decide that kind of thing? There are just too many factors when it comes to humans.

However, most humans with a terminal illness are kept pretty well medicated. So hopefully they don't suffer too much .
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post #5 of 13
5/23/11 at 6:56pm
RIP at the Sweetheart....
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post #6 of 13
5/23/11 at 9:13pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Willowy View Post
That would be a veryvery slippery slope. You can't go around killing people against their will because YOU think their life isn't worth living. If a person is incapacitated (or too young to give consent), how do you know what they want? How do you decide that kind of thing? There are just too many factors when it comes to humans.

However, most humans with a terminal illness are kept pretty well medicated. So hopefully they don't suffer too much .
I understand your concern, but we don't even allow people with terminal illnesses that are of sound mind and beg for release to die peacefully. Its against the law. And removing the feeding tube waiting for starvation to cause death also makes no sense to me, just give them a peaceful opiate or something to get high on and fall into permanent sleep.

In the case of infants, I would think it would be appropriate for two physicians and the legal guardian to write off on it. Just do a google image search on "worst birth defects" and you can see how some of that is just plain cruelty to see how many surgeries that body can endure before it dies...
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post #7 of 13
5/24/11 at 12:55am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ducman69 View Post
I understand your concern, but we don't even allow people with terminal illnesses that are of sound mind and beg for release to die peacefully. Its against the law. And removing the feeding tube waiting for starvation to cause death also makes no sense to me, just give them a peaceful opiate or something to get high on and fall into permanent sleep.

In the case of infants, I would think it would be appropriate for two physicians and the legal guardian to write off on it. Just do a google image search on "worst birth defects" and you can see how some of that is just plain cruelty to see how many surgeries that body can endure before it dies...
I agree completely with this and your other post. Just because we can "save" someone doesn't mean we should. Somewhere along the way we decided that all death is unnatural and something to be feared/avoided.

I feel tremendously sorry for this child's parents. What a horrible thing to have to go through
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post #8 of 13
5/24/11 at 4:10am
What made me mad was the insurance denial
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post #9 of 13
5/24/11 at 4:21am
My heart says that the insurance should have covered the surgery. My head says that the reason our healthcare costs are insane is because of people spending hundreds of thousands and sometimes millions on futile treatments.

There's no easy answer.
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post #10 of 13
5/24/11 at 6:22am
This is definitely a tragic case and my heart goes out to the family.


As far as insurance goes...oi. My insurance doesn't even cover fetal ultraounds (which are required) so it doesn't surprise me that they wouldn't cover the surgery.

So far, for my delivery, it'll cost us over $2k out of pocket even with insurance. And my employer is talking about healthcare increases but not giving us raises? I won't get into the debate over National Healthcare but will say this: our insurance rates increased and coverage decreased after the bill was passed.
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post #11 of 13
5/27/11 at 4:14pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ducman69 View Post
I understand your concern, but we don't even allow people with terminal illnesses that are of sound mind and beg for release to die peacefully. Its against the law. And removing the feeding tube waiting for starvation to cause death also makes no sense to me, just give them a peaceful opiate or something to get high on and fall into permanent sleep.
You've not dealt with home hospice. One of the first things they teach you is how much pain drugs will cause a person to overdose and die. It is presented in an update way so that you don't accidentally overdose the person you are caring for. But then they leave you more than enough to actually do it. One day during a home visit from the hospice group, they told me that a procedure they were about to do with my mom could kill her and asked for my permission to do it. With her organs failing quickly, being in a coma with a few days remaining prognosis, of course I consented. It was the only humane thing to do. (she lived 2 more days)

I think there is a lot more human euthanasia going on than what most people suspect.
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post #12 of 13
5/27/11 at 5:36pm
Quote:
I think there is a lot more human euthanasia going on than what most people suspect
I do, too. My mom was at my grandpa's bedside when he died, and she's pretty sure the nurse gave him a little extra something (she doesn't mind; she kind of wishes it was done sooner). I'm sure it happens a lot. And I think a lot of doctors will prescribe certain meds in such a way that anyone who wanted to could stockpile enough to end things.
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post #13 of 13
5/31/11 at 11:16pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Momofmany View Post
You've not dealt with home hospice.
.
I am so sorry to hear about your mom.
I lost my mom and will never be the same. Miss her so much.
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