A Diagnosis of End-Term MS
I would like to share with the participants of this Forum an experience my late wife had with a local hospital during her last hospitalization. Here is what happened.
My wife entered the hospital because she could not retain the formula she received from her last Peg tube feeding. It appears that this was
probably due to over-feeding. She had not eaten sufficiently for over a year due to swallowing problems. I believe the nutritionist who supervised our feeding did not take this into account. In any case, we took her to the hospital to be suctioned to stop the flow. This was effectively done in the ER. But due to the aspiration she developed a respiratory problem and potentially pneumonia. After she left the ER the hospitalist Dr immediately diagnosed her as "end-Term" MS. Without any attempt of further treatment he claimed her case was "futile" and put her on "comfort care" which meant no nutrition or hydration. After four days of this "care" he put her on a morphine drip and had her breathing mask removed. The next day she died gasping for air. None of this was discussed with my wife or I because they had in writing a strict non-disclosure of what they were doing with her or me. This was clearly stated that this was done because they knew I was opposed to what they were doing. All of this is explicitly stated in the hospital report. After I checked with the MS Society in Washington; they claimed they could not find in their literature search any diagnosis of "End-Term MS". I also checked with my wife's neurologist (a well respected MS researcher). The neurologist also told me this was a "non-extent diagnosis and used solely for the purpose of euthanizing her".
I would like to hear from others what their thoughts are on what happened to my wife and the use of the "End-Term MS" diagnosis. And perhaps others with MS need to be very careful of being treated the same way.
Comments
Thank you very much for sharing this information. I worry about my own difficulty swallowing and where it will lead in the future. I will keep your wife's unfortunately inept care in mind. I'm sorry for your loss.