What happened in Memorial Medical Center in New Orleans in the aftermath of Katrina in September 2005?  Dozens of patients were killed by lethal doses of morphine or the sedative midazolam.  A number of these patients were extremely ill and might not have survived the evacuation. Several were almost certainly not near death when they were injected, according to medical professionals who treated them at Memorial and an internist’s review of their charts and autopsies.  Most of these patients were chosen not because of their current health but because at some time they had consented to a “Do Not Resuscitate” order.  A DNR Order means: A patient whose heartbeat or breathing has stopped should not be revived.  It’s different from a living will which allows patients with a ‘‘terminal and irreversible condition’’ to request in advance that ‘‘life-sustaining procedures’’ be withheld or withdrawn.  All of these patients could have been evacuated.

The doctors involved in the killings have admitted to doing it and have even been praised by the American Medical Association.

Is this just an isolated incident during a terrible tragedy?  No, it’s the future under ObamaCare.

It’s called palliative care.  Under its original intent palliative care was never intended to hasten death.   Palliative care, also called comfort care, is treatment that concentrates on reducing the severity of disease symptoms, rather than striving to halt, delay, or reverse progression of the disease itself or provide a cure. 

Palliative care originated with hospice, but with increased focus on rising healthcare costs, it’s hijacked form is becoming more common.  In 1994, “The Project on Death in America” was created, and it was funded by George Soros.

It provided “funding for individuals and institutions to address, through research and model systems of care, the barriers to appropriate compassionate care of the dying. The major medical, social and economic impediments include: changes in the trajectory of dying, exemplified by large numbers of patients living for months or years after diagnosis of incurable diseases such as cancer and AIDS; the increasing age of the population; high-technology medical support systems for patients with respiratory and cardiac failure; the greater emphasis on patient autonomy, along with the concerted shift from societal to individual rights; and the limitations in healthcare resources, particularly for patients with chronic medical illness.”

Simply put, sick people are living too long and it’s costing too much.  The way to reduce medical costs is to stop treatment and to have “terminal” patients die sooner. It’s described as an innovative end-of-life program.  With the baby boomers aging it’s expected that medical costs will increase dramatically and this is the plan to stop it.

While the Project on Death in America ended in 2003, it was just the start of the effort to institutionalize “palliative care.”  One of the more prominent organizations today is the Center to Advance Palliative Care or CPAC at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York.

In a publication on their web site, “Cost Savings Associated With US Hospital Palliative Care Consultation Programs”, the conclusion in the report is “Hospital palliative care consultation teams are associated with significant hospital cost savings.”

It’s already happening in Britain and France.  In France during the heat wave in 2003, 15,000 elderly - more people than the average or expected death rate - died.  As reported by Time magazine, it was geometrically higher than any other country in Europe.  Many of these deaths were in underfunded retirement homes run by the government.

Dr. Ezekiel Emmanuel, President Obama’s advisor, has said that rationing medicine and letting older or sick people die is the way to reduce cost.  The rationing and “death panels” that we’ve heard about are real.  “Palliative care” is most likely already practiced at a hospital near you.  As of 2006, 55% of hospitals with more than 50 beds have a program.

It is time for patients and their families to ask important questions of all health care facilities.  Do they subscribe to policies of “palliative care” or terminal sedation?  Will the patient continue to receive nutrition and hydration?   Who will decide, if the patient is unable to make the decision?  Your life or the lives of your family members may be in danger.  Be alert!

Rosemary Hackett