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Paula Casey's avatar

My sister in law was involved in a head on collision by a drunk driver about 18 months ago. A truck crossed the highway at 5 PM and hit her CRV head on. She was 67 and not in good health at all. She had been a smoker for over 50 years and had chronic COPD, hypertension, obese, and various other conditions. She was rushed to the hospital, it was determined she had a stroke, a heart attack, and shattered legs to list a few. Of course, the drunk driver had a few bruises, this was her 4th DWI.

This was during Covid when the hospitals were struggling with financial impacts. It took 3 days for my brother to be notified about the accident since police don’t do that in California, they have too many other things to do. A nurse answered my sister in law’s phone. My sister in law was not expected home since she was visiting family elsewhere.

The hospital workers gave my brother hope that my sister in law had a chance of recovery continuously. She was vented since she could not breathe on her own. This small hope was reinforced after every procedure (brain, heart, kidney). The last procedure they did was to run rods down each of her legs. When there was nothing else to be done the nurse asked my brother whether he would like them to keep her comfortable and let her go peacefully or place her in a long term care facility where they could maintain her on life support. Again, they told my brother there was a small chance she could recover but it would be a long hard recovery. These messages were always delivered by the Nurses or Nurse Practioners. My brother wanted to give his wife that chance even if it was less than 10%. He decided to move her to the long term care facility.

A kind physician called my brother, he asked my brother what he had been told by the hospital staff. He explained to my brother very gently that my sister in law would never get better. She would never recognize her family; she would never communicate; she would never wake up. The state she was in would be permanent. My brother knew the decision he had to make, and he made sure her family understood the situation. This kind physician gave his number to be shared with her family if they had questions. The family members called this busy physician who tenderly told each of them there was no hope. The family was united in the decision to take her off life support. She died within a day peacefully.

The hospital knew the day she arrived she would not survive, they knew the extent of the injuries, my sister in law’s age, and health – she had no chance of survival. I felt anger with the hospital – each department got their procedure in – she was a cash cow. My brother got her hospital bill – it was over a million dollars. My brother received a $100,000 death benefit from the car insurance company – Medicare took all of it and paid the hospital bill. The institutions are about the money not humanity, but I do see the goodness in this kind physician that ended my sweet sister in law’s capture by the medical institution so the family could bury her and move on as best you can when you lose someone you love. There is always a light in the darkness.

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Jason's avatar

Great article. I had a big talk with my MD about COVID jabs. She acknowledged having submitted three VAERS reports for her patients (representing about 1% of her patient load) but when I mentioned 1.3 million total VAERS reports filed, she said they were likely fake reports from “bots”, even though the 1.3 million represented a smaller percentage of vaccinated people than she personally reported in her own practice. Cognitive dissonance runs deep, largely based on the psychological traits outlined in the article.

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