1110 HRS JUNE 24TH 2007

Had a talk

with the doctor yesterday.

He made it clear,

that Dad will NOT

be put on life support machines,

even if he needs it,

to stay alive.

It is simply hospital policy

in this country,

that if in clinical opinion,

that the patient cannot recover

from the life support system,

they will not put him in.

Dementia patients

almost always get pneumonia

and they die

of asphyxia.

If the DNR form was not signed,

the hospital will be compelled

to give maximum ward attention,

to my Dad,

which is what

I demanded.

Why then the DNR form?

Maximum ward attention

as opposed to what?

To give minimal or no attention

when an elderly patient

is asphyxiated?

Speaking of life support systems,

why are doctors here

even making clinical opinions

that a patient cannot recover

from the machine,

without even trying?

It would make alot of difference

to me,

if my Dad was put

on life support system,

for months,

and I could see

for myself,

that he was degenerating

further

into a vegetable,

and that he could never

live a normal human life

again.