by GDN01 » Thu Dec 22, 2005 8:25 pm
I can honestly say that even IF doctors and nurses decided to administer life-ending meds to patients in these horrible conditions, I personally feel it should be handled as a tragedy, not a crime. <br>I saw a story on this on CNN in the last day or two, and some people made some awful accusations about what might have happened in these hospitals, suggesting sick people were killed who were not near death, and that it was done out of selfishness rather than a wish to end the suffering of some. But no one had actually seen a patient injected.<br><br>There is no way for anyone who did not live through that experience to even begin to grasp what it was like. Some suggest patients' lives were ended, at the earliest, three days after the hurricane. Three days of utter hell are enough to cause mental breakdowns. This was three days of no electricity, no water, in extreme heat, with people on the verge of death all around, as well as people dying. Doctors and nurses were bagging (forcing oxygen into people's lungs) people by hand - for days - just to keep them alive. I can imagine reaching a point that I just couldn't do it. Patients were beginning to die of dehydration - even ones that had not been on their death beds before the storm, and that is one of the worst kind of deaths there is - it is slow and painful. And these medical professionals had to think, I would imagine, about their own survival. They could make it out on their own - wade through the water or whatever - but they couldn't take the patients with them. So again, I can imagine reaching a point where even survival instincts kick in and thinking if the patients' deaths are hastened, then I could leave and possibly stay alive. And if I left, with the patients still living, they would die anyway, and suffer lots more. <br><br>These are just all possibly scenarios I can imagine, besides the obvious of wanting to end suffering and feeling it was the most humane thing to do. And who knows what else would run through your mind in the nightmare they experienced. What ever the reason, if medical professionals decided to administer drugs that ended the lives of the patients - in those circumstances - I think they were doing the best they could in the moment. And I would want someone to end my life, if I were a patient trapped in those circumstances, and suffering. <p></p><i></i>