My wife and I became concerned about her father (89 y/o with diabetes, prior stroke, poor balance, frequent falls, renal insufficiency, depression ....) last year when his sensory deprivation (severe hearing loss, cataracts) was leading to increased dementia symptoms. He was scheduled to receive hearing aids but his appointments kept getting cancelled. He was on multiple occasions scheduled for cataract surgery, but his son cancelled the appointments every time. Medication errors led to life threatening complications, and again his son hampered intervention. We discovered that while his son was obstructing medical treatment he had brought an appraiser into his fathers home to catalog assets and had calculated his dad's worth at $1.5 million. A family court petition was filed in October 2008 seeking medical guardianship to protect her dad. While pending a Court hearing her father was found near death on the floor of his home having laid there unable to move or call out for help for 48-72 hours. He was bruised, severely dehydrated, and suffering from rhabdomyolysis (severe muscle trauma). The asset controlling son had concealed this obvious abuse/neglect, and continues to block access to his medical records.
Even though a Court hearing was pending alleging abuse/neglect when this obvious abuse/neglect occured; calls to the local police and Pennsylvania State Police were met with "we don't want to get involved in a family dispute".
The potential for unmitigated greed to influence unscrupulous parties to nudge those in their care towards an "assisted" death is the exact reason why formal legislation is needed.
Common sense dictates that the person who decides who "pulls the plug" shouldn't benefit from pulling the plug. Unfortunately, far to many of "the greatest generation" have a blind trust in family, and are subject to the abuse/neglect evident here where by a parent can be abused or neglected for "fun and profit"--Legislative help is needed to protect these victims from theirquasi-"loved ones".
BLAKE MOORE, MD FACS
Elder Abuse " for Fun and Profit "
By BLAKE MOORE, MD on Jun 15 09
My wife and I became concerned about her father (89 y/o with diabetes, prior stroke, poor balance, frequent falls, renal insufficiency, depression ....) last year when his sensory deprivation (severe hearing loss, cataracts) was leading to increased dementia symptoms. He was scheduled to receive hearing aids but his appointments kept getting cancelled. He was on multiple occasions scheduled for cataract surgery, but his son cancelled the appointments every time. Medication errors led to life threatening complications, and again his son hampered intervention. We discovered that while his son was obstructing medical treatment he had brought an appraiser into his fathers home to catalog assets and had calculated his dad's worth at $1.5 million. A family court petition was filed in October 2008 seeking medical guardianship to protect her dad. While pending a Court hearing her father was found near death on the floor of his home having laid there unable to move or call out for help for 48-72 hours. He was bruised, severely dehydrated, and suffering from rhabdomyolysis (severe muscle trauma). The asset controlling son had concealed this obvious abuse/neglect, and continues to block access to his medical records.
Even though a Court hearing was pending alleging abuse/neglect when this obvious abuse/neglect occured; calls to the local police and Pennsylvania State Police were met with "we don't want to get involved in a family dispute".
The potential for unmitigated greed to influence unscrupulous parties to nudge those in their care towards an "assisted" death is the exact reason why formal legislation is needed.
Common sense dictates that the person who decides who "pulls the plug" shouldn't benefit from pulling the plug. Unfortunately, far to many of "the greatest generation" have a blind trust in family, and are subject to the abuse/neglect evident here where by a parent can be abused or neglected for "fun and profit"--Legislative help is needed to protect these victims from theirquasi-"loved ones".
BLAKE MOORE, MD FACS
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