Community Update

Dr. Jeffery Spiess told me he was going to "pull rank" and make his own decisions, when it came to the lack of good care, for my Mother. He continued to allow nurses to give my mother morphine. From what was found out later, he did not even know how much she was being given. As he and the nurses assumed I was "just a daughter who didn't want to let go of her Mom." This is so far from the truth! My mother and I had a beautiful relationship and since she has passed on I feel extremely close to her and have an authentic spiritual understanding of life, love and relationships. I was the daughter, who knew her extremely well, knew her wishes, knew she never complained once about not having a quality of life (even at 98 yrs old with chronic COPD and moderate to severe CHF) and most importantly, knew she wanted to live! I honored her wishes and life! After receiving so much morphine, she needed me to explain her wishes but others did not listen and seemed to honor death more than living. The evening of the day that I was told I did not have a say in my Mother's treatment by Dr. Jeffery Speiss, at a meeting with Dr. Speiss other hospice employees and my family, Dr. Spies admitted that after being there 2 1/2 days the nurses were giving, from the beginning, my Mother 3x the dose amount of morphine that she should have been receiving for her weight and age, each time! He and other employees did not even know why my Mother was brought in which was to expedite the removal of fluid, not to make her more comfortable as she died. She was not actively dying when brought in, but their protocol put her in an actively dying situation. The nurses and doctors of the Hospice of the Western Reserve have no skills in differential diagnosis! If they did, they would have been treating my mother quite differently. Their protocol is limited. The obscene amounts of morphine given to my Mother killed her in 3 days. I was my mother's 'health care power of attorney' and was not listened to as I tried to explain why she was there and wiling to offer information on my Mother. She was not your typical 98 year 'older' woman with CHF and COPD. As promised to me by the home visiting hospice nurse, my Mother was to be brought into the hospice center to be evaluated regarding her CHF and COPD meds and, as much as possible, to get the fluid out of her lungs, remain on her meds and to be sent home, God willing with the appropriate care, in 2 days, on a better medicine regimen. I agreed to it, but emphatically stated that removing the fluid from her would be the ultimate focus and to not give her anymore morphine. My mother did not even want to go to the hospice center. She was a strong woman and knew how to handle her breathing when it became labored. Before she even left her home for Ames Family Hospice Center, she received at least 3 to 4 doses of morphine already and, I believe, in retrospect, it was the beginning of making it difficult for her body to naturally clear itself. My sister just got in from California to visit our Mother and called me when she got there that morning. My sister was not used to seeing our Mother as often as me and was the child that brought hospice into our family's lives believing it would be a great opportunity for our Mother. I agreed as I was told it was a way our Mother, who didn't want anymore hospital stays could get house visits from a nurse who would report to a physician and have her meds managed out of the comfort of her home. That morning the report I received over the phone from my sister and the hospice nurse may have been 'jaded.' I know my sister's and my mind 'sets' were quite different. I think my sister's and hospice's beliefs were more in alignment. I'm for managing one's quality of life and I guess they are for managing one's death.? When visiting at Thanksgiving and again at Christmas, my sister seemed all to eager to want to stop our Mom's life giving meds and have my Mother start a 'contrived' death with morphine because, maybe (???), she was uncomfortable seeing our Mother with labored breathing. Not being around our Mother, as often as me, I guess my sister could not handle it and thought it was time to give our Mother the morphine, as she thought as hospice thinks, 'make someone comfortable and manage their death.' I just never got this (unless someone was actively dying), because my Mother was very capable of speaking for herself, but did take medicines out of our hands trusting we were giving her meds to improve her life! How can WE make that serious decision for her while she's sleeping in the other room, on what to give her with such a moral outcome? She always chose life, up until she was put in a 'drug induced stupor' which set up the perfect storm for a contrived death. Some people say that people shouldn't be kept alive artificially, which I agree with if someone can not make the decision themselves, but, in hospice, do they create a death--artificially? Hmmm...something to think about? My Mother entered the hospice center, the nurse continued to give her morphine, stopped the diuretic and even laid her down that first night, while continuing to give her morphine throughout the night and not giving my Mother any of her other meds. Anyone knowing CHF, knows you do not not lay a person down unless you are laying them down to die and be more comfortable. The reason I am writing and sharing my story is to ask you to carefully think through the decision to pull hospice in to help manage you or your loved one's life. I know all to well that a decision made yesterday affects your life today! I also hope that the Hospice of the Western Reserve and the Ames Family Hospice Center learn more about differential diagnosis when someone is placed in their hands.