Investigative Report
Hillary's 'Episode'...The Truth Exposed

By: Diane Sori and Craig Andresen / Right Side Patriots

In trying to decipher Hillary Clinton’s medical issues, and she obviously has medical issues, there are two codes, if you will, that must be cracked.

First, there is the matter of the official Hillary team explanation regarding what transpired over the weekend at Sunday’s 9/11 event. By now everybody knows about Hillary leaving the event early, being helped from the venue to a spot near the curb while she and her handlers…or spotters as the case may be…waited for Hillary’s custom van/ambulance to arrive and second, there was the whole aspect of Hillary’s spotters catching her as she went limp and then was literally dragged and loaded into that van.

As to the official story…

Hillary’s people put out to the press that Hillary’s now called ‘episode’ was because of the heat. It’s a cover story that willing members of the mainstream media ran with and MSNBC went so far as to call the weather in NYC last Sunday morning… ”horrible.” It was hot, uncomfortably hot they said, coupled with extreme humidity. MSNBC also went to great lengths to blame Hillary’s clothing for her obvious “overheating episode,” calling into question her long jacket, what may well have been a long sleeved blouse, and the dark color of her ample pantsuit, as the culprits in her ‘down goes Hillary’ caught on tape moment.

See Hillary's ‘episode’ here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSTaOka3Z9k

Here’s the skinny on what MSNBC and other media outlets called the “horribly hot” weather in NYC last Sunday morning…the temperature at the time Hillary had to leave the 9/11 event early was a stifling 79 degrees, just 7 degrees over what is considered to be ‘room temperature.’ The skies were a mix of sun and light clouds, the humidity was an anything but ‘horrific’ 54%, and there was a light breeze at 9 MPH.

Obviously, it was not the heat that took Hillary Clinton out last Sunday, but what about her pantsuit?

As we looked at all the still images and videos from Sunday’s 9/11 event, we clearly saw all manner of men, many sitting near Hillary herself, wearing dark suits, long-sleeved shirts, dark pants, and neck ties. And the women were conservatively dressed in dresses, stockings, blazers, and pants as well.

Now here’s what you do not see in those pictures or videos…people sweating. Nobody seems to be battling the heat. Nobody seems to be on the verge of passing out. Nobody, not those speaking, not those in attendance, and none of the first responders in uniform or wearing suits, was anywhere near suffering a heat related ‘episode…nobody except Hillary that is.

Oh yes, there is one more bit of direct evidence that completely dispels the excessive heat cover story…when Hillary walked out of Chelsea’s apartment building, not long after her ‘episode’ and when asked by members of the press how she was doing…Hillary’s response completely blew the “horrible” heat cover story out of the water…”Enjoying a beautiful day in New York,” she said, with no reference whatsoever to the supposedly “horrible” heat that caused her now infamous ‘episode.’

So, what was quickly needed was a second cover story as the first one held water like a screen door on a submarine, and the next story to surface was that since last Friday, Hillary has had, “a touch of pneumonia,” a hastily concocted story by Hillary’s personal doctor, Dr. Lisa Bardack, who apparently is now traveling with Hillary everywhere. 

First of all…no one has a “touch of pneumonia” …one either has pneumonia or one does not have pneumonia, but no one has a “touch” of pneumonia. Second, Hillary had apparently spent time at Chelsea’s apartment before going to the 9/11 event, and after having been dragged into her ‘mobile health center’ from the curb, back to Chelsea’s she went.

Now ask yourself this…who with a “touch” of pneumonia or with a full-blown case of pneumonia goes to a home where an infant and young child reside …as in Hillary’s grandchildren…and who upon emerging from said location, if she indeed does have pneumonia, beckons to and then touches and poses for a staged photo with a young child…no one with an ounce of concern for others would ever do such a thing.

Not only that, but someone managed to grab a photo of Hillary outside the 9/11 event and presumably after she was assisted from the venue but before her custom ‘mobile care center’ arrived, Hillary can clearly be seen squeezing the fingers of Dr. Lisa Bardack.

Here’s the first clue…squeezing of fingers is not normally done in conjunction with an already 3-day old being treated bout of pneumonia….squeezing fingers is, however, a normal procedure for someone suffering from a neurological issue.

So, if it was not the heat…and clearly it was not as the temperature was only 79 degrees…and if her clothing had nothing to do with her ‘episode’…which again obviously it did not as Hillary never removed her jacket or untied the tight ascot on her blouse both something someone ‘overheating’ would immediately do…and if it was not pneumonia which seems more than highly unlikely…what then is wrong with Hillary Clinton?

Hillary Clinton is not well, that is obvious to anyone who has seen her physical condition deteriorate over the past few years. With a decades long history of falls, confusion, vision issues, and actual collapses…as in Hillary’s fainting during a luncheon speech in Buffalo, N.Y. in 2005…Hillary’s medical history that we know of includes breaking her right elbow in a fall in a Department of State parking garage in 2009; collapsing in 2011 while boarding a flight in Yemen; and her 2012 infamous ‘boo-boo’ that turned out to be the result of a fall in her Chappaqua N.Y. home. 

And it was this last incident that was the turning point for her now downhill health spiral that seems to be more noticeable by the day.

Remember, this is the incident where Hillary passed out in the bathroom and hit her head on the toilet which turned into a concussion complete with a blood clot…a cerebral venous thrombosis (CVT)…in a vein being found between the brain and the skull behind her right ear. Not knowing if the concussion caused the blood clot or if the blood clot was what led to the fall, Hillary was put on blood thinners to dissolve the clot and to prevent other clots from forming, and she remains on blood thinners to this very day…Coumadin to be exact…and it’s Coumadin (warfarin sodium) that is the key to what really ails Hillary for Coumadin is used in the treatment of specific conditions only and is counterproductive when treating other conditions…especially those some speculate she has.

To date, Hillary has had three episodes of venous thrombosis (clots in veins) and in 1998 she was first prescribed the blood thinner/anti-coagulant Lovenox to treat ‘supposed’ blood-clotting problems happening in her legs on extended plane flights while Secretary of State and she was still on said drug in 2009 when she broke her right elbow. Replaced with Coumadin in 2012, after her ‘boo-boo’ fall, Coumadin is a very powerful drug that if given in too high a dose can cause one to hemorrhage and even bleed to death, and if given in too low a dose clots will continue to form. 

This means that Hillary could hemorrhage or worse from even a minor fall or other accident if her Coumadin dose is not adjusted on a regular and routine basis...that's why at times you see her being held upright by her handlers. And adjusting Coumadin translates into a blood test being a must every two to four weeks to make sure her blood is ‘thinning’ to the acceptable levels as per international normalized ration (INR)…which is simply a measure of how quickly her blood coagulates... and that said levels remain within a safe range without bleeding complications compromising her treatment and overall health.

After the above said fall in her bathroom, Hillary was given tests while in the hospital which found she has a genetic predisposition to form blood clots…along with her documented thyroid problems which in and of themselves can lead to hypercoagulability…either of which puts her at a higher risk for strokes and/or heart attacks than it does the general population. It also means that long and numerous plane flights are a no-no as it’s a well-documented fact that flying for extended periods of time… especially if one does not get up and walk or at least stretch…is a major cause of blood clots, especially in those predisposed to them.

And like we said above, a genetic disposition to blood clots means Hillary Clinton will be on Coumadin for the rest of her life as she has five times the chance of a woman her age developing another blood clot, especially a pulmonary embolism which can cause sudden death. And this five times the chance actually translates into a 20% chance over the next 10 years of her having a major stroke…and those 10 years started in 2012 when she first started taking Coumadin meaning with it now being 2016, four of those 10 years have already gone by as her risk increases over the next six years…six years that would fall during her presidency if she is elected.

So what conditions is Coumadin (also Warfarin or Lovenox) prescribed for and what are its side effects besides hemorrhaging if the dose is too high? First and most obvious is that the blood thinner/anti-coagulant Coumadin (and the others mentioned) is used to prevent further strokes and/or heart attacks in a person who has already had such an event as well as it being a stabilizer of an irregular heartbeat. But those important benefits comes with serious side effects including the previously stated excess bleeding from even a minor wound, bleeding gums, blood in the urine, chest pain, peeling skin (makes one wonder if that’s why Hillary is always wearing long sleeve, high necklines, and pants), serious bone loss, a vitamin K deficiency, calcification of the arteries, as well as blurred vision and confusion…with the last two issues ‘We the People’ being privy to as we’ve witnessed it with our own eyes.

First the blurred vision that seems to be a recurrent issue…remember back to January 2013 when Hillary testified before the Benghazi committee and that she was wearing glasses. But those were not regular run-of-the-mill prescription glasses…they were what’s called ‘medically modified’ eyeglasses. Attached to each lens by transparent adhesive tape was a Fresnel prism designed to treat the double vision resulting from the concussion, the blood clot, and her already long-term use of the blood thinner Lovenox as well as her now being on Coumadin. And these eyeglasses have resurfaced at various times during the ensuing years meaning episodes of blurred vision are still an ongoing occurrence. 

Now for the confusion…Hillary’s top advisor and BFF, Huma Abedin, has claimed that Hillary was often very confused and at times even had trouble thinking for herself. Abedin even sent an email to that affect to other staff members that you can see here.

 
And remember when Hillary looked like a deer caught in the headlights during an August rally when she appeared confused and fearful and her aides and F.B.I. agents had to sort of ‘kick-start’ her speech…you can that incident here for yourself: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azUpfzDNxpw 

Now let’s not forget her refusing to speak to the press and her sometimes incoherent TV town hall appearances…here’s just one from this past July https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqrSJi0aYZA ...all of which both separately and together paint a picture of a woman who is not ‘quite right’ both physically and mentally.

Could this all be caused by her Coumadin use or does Hillary have a deeper more serious medical condition than just blood clots that Coumadin is being prescribed for? Some folks have speculated that Hillary Clinton is hiding the fact that she has either multiple sclerosis (MS) or Parkinson’s disease, but it’s our opinion that she has neither for while some of the symptoms do seem to overlap in Hillary’s physical presentation, the fact is that Coumadin is not prescribed for either condition and in fact is somewhat counterproductive in Parkinson’s and outright dangerous in someone with MS.

And why…because Parkinson’s disease is treated specifically with dopamine agonists, MAO-inhibitors, and COMT-inhibitors and if one must be on both at the same time…which is not recommended… Coumadin (warfarin sodium) can seriously affect how the liver metabolizes the Parkinson’s drugs, thus affecting the control of Parkinson’s symptoms…not an ideal scenario.

As for Coumadin (warfarin sodium) being used to treat MS…simply put…taking said drug is a big no-no as the drug can seriously interact with the high-dose corticosteroids used in the treatment of MS leading to a rapid progression of the disease as it complicates therapy to a potentially life-threatening level.

This means that with Hillary’s admitting to be taking Coumadin the chances of her having either Parkinson’s or MS are slim as no knowledgeable doctor would have her on Coumadin (or warfarin sodium or even Lovenox) while treating either one of those two diseases. 

Bottom line…Hillary Clinton’s medical condition…her confusion, blurred vision, instability when walking, occasional detachment from reality (see such a moment here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMHOcmDVBP0) among other things, has been caused by the concussion, the blood clots, and we believe a series of mini-strokes which fits her symptoms and medications to a tee.

Mini-strokes…also known as a transient ischemic attack (TIA)… happens when part of the brain experiences a temporary lack of blood flow due to a blood clot…and know that sometimes small clots dissolve on their own. The only difference between an actual stroke and TIA is that with a TIA the blockage resolves within 24 hours or less and the attack itself lasts for 5 minutes of less, usually lasting only a minute. And unlike with a stroke, a TIA does not kill brain tissue or cause serious permanent damage or disabilities but is a warning sign, if you will, of a major stroke happening with a short period of time…usually a year or less…if the person is not treated with clot-busting drugs like Coumadin.

And a mini-stroke shares symptoms with a major stroke but to a lesser and short lived degree. Some symptoms include sudden numbness or weakness of the face, arm, or leg; sudden confusion, trouble speaking or understanding (all of which Hillary has had); sudden trouble seeing in one or both eyes (remember Hillary’s special medically modified eyeglasses); sudden trouble walking, dizziness, lack of balance or coordination (as witnessed by Sunday’s ‘episode’); and sudden severe headaches with no known cause (Hillary has been reported to have had severe headaches from time to time).

And know that mini-strokes can occur many times but the Coumadin would help to keep them in check thus aiding in keeping a major stroke at bay. But even a drug like Coumadin…if not properly taken and adjusted as previously mentioned…cannot keep a major stroke from happening in some cases. And this is a legitimate fear with Hillary Clinton as we witness her health deteriorating almost daily and with the possibly of her not only having had mini-strokes but with actually having had a mild to moderate stroke already.

If you look closely at the triptik photo below you will see a leg brace used in patients who have had a mild to moderate stroke and are now experiencing weakness in a leg on the affected side...in Hillary's case it's the right leg (just like it was the right elbow that she broke) and it's the right leg that gave-out as she was entering the van on Sunday. Look at the folds in the right leg of Hillary's pants suit, they match exactly the contours of the brace shown. Now look at the medal 'pin' on the brace closings and what dropped out of the leg of her pants suit's right leg during her entering the van...again a match. All a coincidence...we surely do not think so.

So, to put this all together in a tidy little package, there are three things you need to know with regard to Hillary’s 9/11 'episode' and those are that she suffers from not one but two different afflictions that as you will quickly see lead to a conclusion.

First…Hillary Clinton is neither suffering from Parkinson’s nor MS as some have speculated. While there are some aspects of Hillary’s symptoms that are shared with both those illnesses there are factual elements of Hillary’s medical record that have been established for several years that prove neither of those speculated illnesses are consistent with her current medical issues. Hillary’s current  'episode' and so many previous 'episodes' point directly to a series of small strokes that are now occurring one after another in more and more rapid succession, simply meaning that Hillary’s current 'episode' was neurological in nature.

The second of Hillary’s afflictions is pathological in nature as she, without question, is a pathological liar. As evidenced last Sunday, in New York City, Hillary and her team first issued a false cover story that she had succumbed to the intense heat of a beautiful 79 degree morning…lie number one soon to be followed by lie number two that she was suffering from pneumonia. We can tell you unequivocally that her Secret Service detail’s first and foremost action after Hillary went completely limp and had to be loaded into her van should and would have been to rush her to the nearest hospital, but either Hillary herself or one of her handlers ordered her to be taken to Chelsea’s multi-million dollar apartment instead….an apartment complete with small children which no doctor... especially Dr. Lisa Bardack, an Internal Medicine practitioner...would have been in favor of had Hillary actually been suffering from pneumonia.

And finally...the inescapable conclusion…

Hillary and her team, the same Hillary Clinton and the same team that have been lying for years regarding her emails...as in which of them have been turned over and how none of them ever contained classified or top secret information…the exact same Hillary Clinton and team who started lying about Benghazi while the attacks were still under way…are now telling us that they are about to release Hillary’s medical records.

Oh really...we’re supposed to believe that just as she expected us to believe she had turned over every last email...we don't think so.

It now seems quite clear that Hillary is not physically capable of serving even one term as President and Sunday’s 'episode' caught on video and indisputable regardless of how many lies she and her team try to foist on the American public with the help of a willing mainstream media proves it, and the only question remaining at this point is...what will happen first? Will Hillary drop out of the 2016 race for the White House or will she try to convince all of us that the true reason for her 9/11 'episode' was some obscure YouTube video about mohammed?

Only time will tell.

Op-ed:
The Battle Between God and Medicine...Part 2 of 2
By: Diane Sori / The Patriot Factor / Contributions by Craig Andresen / Right Side Patriots on americanpbn.com/

In Part 1 of this two-part series (http://thepatriotfactor.blogspot.com/2016/05/op-ed-battle-between-god-and-medicine.html) I spoke of the road we all must travel on when our life comes to an end...a road of good intentions that at times goes horribly wrong. Telling the story of my mom's recent passing, I pointed out the quandary in how our loved ones are forced to leave this world...many if not most times with it not being the peaceful death that the movies so love to portray, but instead in agony and pain leaving death as a welcome respite from unbearable suffering for both the one dying and for those left behind who are witness to said suffering. I spoke of 'Hospice' and their good intentions, but intentions that can only go so far because they are mired down in religious tenets and secular legalities that turn death at times into the stuff of one's worst nightmare, instead of it being the bridge to becoming one with God.

At the end of Part 1, I also hinted at the true reason...a reason beyond religious dogma and legalities countless pages long...as to why our civilized society makes the act of dying so hard to take...and it boils down to six simple words...dying in America is big business.

Let's start with some basic facts about 'Hospice'...this country's main organization serving as the bridge between end-of-life care and a hoped for peaceful death. America's hospice industry has grown over the past decade and a half into a $17 billion a year for-profit industry. This mostly now for-profit industry...an industry that was once the dominion of community and religious organizations...will see almost half of all Americans of retirement age using their services and feeding their coffers before death. And while Medicare and most private insurance companies do cover all if not at least some of hospice care, not all do, leaving the one dying and/or their family to foot the bill for their own death in some cases. And in the for-profit hospices (please know however that there are some not-for-profit hospices still in existence but that their numbers are dwindling rapidly) there is a strong economic incentive to provide less care because they get paid a flat daily fee from Medicare for each of their patients...meaning the fewer services they provide, the higher their profit margin.

A good business practice perhaps, but the stuff of nightmares for those whose services they so desperately need.

And this I can attest to personally for while my mom lay dying in a hospice room at the hospital she was in...we were visited by a for-profit private hospice staff member just once a day with the hospice nurse staying the least amount of time, and with the hospice chaplain staying the longest amount of time. In fact, no one from hospice was there when my mom actually passed away, and it was I, her daughter, who had to pronounce my own mother dead, and it was I who had to go to the nurse's station to tell them that my mom was gone. Holding my mother's hand as she slipped away gasping for breath as she tried to say something but couldn't should not be my last memory of my mother yet it is because this hospice group was spread too thin with not enough staff to attend to all the dying entrusted to their care that day.

Do I blame hospice for what happened at 12:15am on April 8th of this year...no I do not as my mom's fate was sealed 40+ years ago when she was first diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, but I do blame the general way our loved ones are forced to travel that road 'home'...a road mired down in hospital and governmental red tape and legalities that do not allow us to determine the time and mode of our own deaths. My mom knew her time was coming to an end almost a year ago when she said that when the time was right...when she could not take the ravages Parkinson's placed upon her body any longer...that she would stop taking her 22 pills a day...her choice...her wish...and a few months ago she started doing just that. However, due to the 'miracles' of modern medicine, patients like my mom when they are rushed to the hospital are made to suffer in vain attempts to prolong the life they no longer want, because our collective mindset is that we must do everything to postpone death. To postpone death...to postpone becoming one with God...is not only hurting people it is actually slapping God in the face.

The last two weeks of my mother's life were spent in the hospital where the doctors tried without success to get her to swallow pills she could no longer swallow, as pneumonia and sepsis ate away at what was left of her. And yet as my father, brother, and I all begged the doctors to end this nightmare, their medical intervention by law continued on until finally even the doctors saw they could do no more. And so her last five days on this Earth were spent in hospice care as the bills for her dying grew higher and higher...bills we were covered for but bills which someone in the end has to pay...and that someone as always comes full-circle back to we taxpayers.

And this has nothing to do with hospice care or lack thereof but has everything to do with U.S. hospitals having doubled or even tripled their number of ICU beds, thus spending and charging insurance companies and Medicare an inordinate amount of money on the last hopeless months, weeks, days, or even hours of someone's life, and the worst thing of all is that this is the kind of care that most people do not want.

So, the bottom line is that...as was in my mother's case...we are not prolonging life...we are prolonged death and denying the dying their right to be one with God. And why...for the almighty dollar is why and for the right of doctors to say that everything medically possible was done to save your loved one's life. Remember, it pays to keep dying patients alive and to keep them undergoing treatment, it does not pay to have them die.

“Financial incentives built into the programs that most often serve people with advanced serious illnesses — Medicare and Medicaid — encourage providers to render more services and more intensive services than are necessary or beneficial,” were the findings of Dying in America, a September 2014 report issued by the Institute of Medicine.

Now do not get me wrong as I am a staunch supporter of our medical industry and its quest for quality of life especially for the dying, but I know in my heart when it is time to say 'no more.' And while I support both government and private funding for medical research, and I relish in the day when cutting edge stem cell research can be made applicable to cure diseases that once were incurable (like Parkinson's perhaps), I also know that our taxpayer dollars must be wisely spent on the living not on prolonging the life of someone suffering whose sole wish is to be allowed to go 'home.'

And to that end I must say that sometimes doctors themselves are to blame as our medical system in general has been so corrupted by not only the monstrosity known as ObamaCare but by government regulations and watchful eyes that seem to monitor a doctor's every decision basing it solely upon the premise of it being cost prohibited. Patients are rushed to the hospital at the drop of a hat not because a hospital is where they should be, but because a hospital stay racks up big dollars and helps to offset the cost of doctor visits, other medical necessities, and high cost standard and experimental treatments.

Just think how much money could be saved vs a hospital stay or an emergency room visit if doctors just made house calls especially when it involves an elderly and sick patient. I firmly believe that each and every practice should have at least one doctor on staff who makes house calls, and that each doctor in a given practice takes turns doing just that...house calls. Not only would hospital admissions and emergency room visits be cut way down, but doctors would then get to see and access their patients in their own homes, which is critical as one advances in age and when one is reaching the end of one's life. Decisions could then be made by both the doctor and family members who together just might feel that hospital given medical intervention would cause more harm and pain, while knowing that the outcome will be that their loved one is going to die anyway. Letting them die at home or under the auspices of hospice would then become the wise decision.

And while letting someone die with or without medical intervention is not legally the same as assisted suicide, it still would allow for unwanted intervention by family members ill-equipped to spiritually let their loved one go unless it was possible to solicit in writing a person’s preferences for end-of-life care before a life or death crisis occurs. Going beyond the standard legally binding 'do not resuscitate' orders that many older people now have in place, an end-of-life document could lay out the specifics of how and when one wants to die and if any medical intervention is wanted or not. Such a document would become legally binding if witnessed and notarized as per each state's law...that is once laws are put into place and criteria set.

And the critical difference between this type of document and legally assisted suicide...now allowed or being considered in at least seven states...is that no one would have to assist anyone in dying as no one's hand is needed...the person would just pass at the time of God's choosing with no intervention by man or machine allowed. This too would separate it from what we call mercy killings. Could the person's death now be painful and wrought with complications...of course it could...but shouldn't one be allowed to decide their own fate when there is no hope for recovery...I believe they should be afforded that one last act of dignity...that one last all-important decision.

I know my mother wanted to die a painful and agonizing year before she did...she had had enough as her body was overtaken by Parkinson's turning her into but a shadow of her former self. I heard her begging to die as more and more tubes and lines were inserted into her now frail and decaying body, and I heard the doctors saying that legally they could not do what they in their hearts knew should be done. And I heard hospice saying the same thing yet at the same time agreeing with me that the hows of death in America must be changed so that the horrors my mother experienced do not have to happen to anyone else.

And that is something God would want for his children...to come to Him peacefully and of sound mind not in the throws of a morphine induced haze, as they leave behind a worn out body to become one with Him for all eternity. My mother was denied a peaceful passing...morphine is not the peaceful panacea most people think...hopefully in time and with the right legislation put into place others will not meet her fate. And to that end I intend to reach out to any and all legislators on both sides of the aisle...after all dying is not a partisan issue...and try to get them to propose and pass legislation that helps the dying pass on their terms not on ours...not on terms laid out by religious dogma and not on terms dictated by government dollars and cents intervention...but on each persons individual terms that serves both them and their families well.

It's the very least this grieving daughter can do to honor her mother and to help those who come after her in death...a death I pray is more peaceful than the one I just witnessed for like I said in Part 1 of this series, the road to heaven is often, like with the road to hell, paved with good intentions but with good intentions that at times can and do go horribly wrong. But this is a road we can fix and hopefully in time we will as God and medicine need not battle anymore.

Op-ed:
The Battle Between God and Medicine...Part 1 of 2
By: Diane Sori / The Patriot Factor / Contributions By Craig Andresen / Right Side Patriots on americanpbn.com 

In life some roads we travel on we do so with loved ones and friends by our side as those roads traveled have a tangible end. But there is one road we all must travel on that we sadly must do so alone.

And while it's been said that the road to hell is paved with good intentions, sometimes the road to heaven is paved with good intentions gone horribly wrong. And those intentions become ever so obvious when it comes time for us to travel that final road on the journey 'home.'

And while some...while many...believe that road must reach its destination only at the time of the Lord's choosing, I for one have come to witness that is not necessarily so for I cannot nor will not accept that the one true loving God of we Christians and Jews condones the suffering of the barely living getting ready to go 'home.'

"It's in God's hands now," the religious say..."God will call them 'home' at the time of His choosing," they add, all while quoting or should I say misquoting tenets and words of dogma about the how and when being according to God's plan alone. But if truth be told what their words really mean is it’s in God’s hands now that we, in all our arrogance and with all our medical know how, can no longer continue to usurp what had all along been the will of God.

And while end of life care inevitably brings about both religious questioning and a deep searching for some semblance of truth, the simple fact is that when a loved one is ready to pass on, many uncomfortable decisions must be made, and many need an excuse or a scapegoat for decisions they themselves are either too uncomfortable with or just too scared to make.

Enter the word's, "It's in God's hands now." 

But no words spoken can explain how a merciful and loving God can allow some to survive and recover while that very same God allows others with the very same disease to suffer and die...is it that sickness and suffering are somehow part of His greater plan? If it is then it's a plan straight from hell as can be witnessed by taking a simple walk through a hospice ward of any hospital. Take that walk with eyes open as you glance at all the suffering and pain not just experienced by the dying, but also by the loved ones soon to be left behind. Look deeply into the eyes of those suffering who have exhausted all medical technology who now have sadly arrived at what was always their inevitable end, and tell me again how this is the greater plan of a merciful and loving God.

I cannot and will not believe this is God's plan for any of his children. Instead I believe this type of death...a death shrouded in pain and suffering...is the failed result of our modern society that has doctors wringing every last breath and every last heartbeat possible from a patient’s dying body long after who that person was has since departed this world.

But what should we, as a civilized society, do in these cases...do we play God and end the pain and suffering by our own hand or do we let nature...do we let God...take its predetermined course as the religious believe.

There has to be a better way that allows for better decisions to be made.

And could that better way perhaps be in our allowing doctors to make end of life decisions...to end the pain and suffering...based solely upon a clinical diagnosis that meets a set number of specific medical criteria coupled with the consent of the patient and/or their loved ones...but wait...the religious will say that we cannot have doctors playing God.

But isn’t playing God exactly what doctors have been forced to do by our modern society having set the bar for doctors at an unattainable high. 'Do No Harm'..the Hippocratic Oath...a promise made that has now translated into doctors being forced to allow patients to linger on and suffer in a prolonged, no 'quality of life' existence...an existence God would have ended long before every bit of medical and pharmaceutical technology was thrown at them...an existence now mired down in of all things...legalities. God, or as I believe the natural course of things, would most definitely have closed the door on certain patient’s lives long before the world of modern medicine and a civilized society said their time is up...long before their existence became just a few extra months, weeks, days, or even mere hours of sometimes unbearable suffering and pain.

And amongst all the legalities and the religious dogma that tears at the heart, certain questions remain, for while we can and do prolong life no matter the pain and suffering involved, what has happened to the all-important question of 'quality of life'...have we as an arrogant society sunk so low as to designate the simple involuntary act of breathing to be 'quality of life'...life lived just to avoid us having to say that final good-bye? And why at the end of life are we more civilized...more humane...with our pets than we are with the people we so loved? And while as a society we mourn the loss of our loved ones with a celebration of their lives, why do we at the same time excuse ourselves and our choices made by pinning our failings on religion...after all "It was God’s plan" becomes our often repeated mantra as we try to remove ourselves from all blame.
                                                                     
"It was God's plan"...four simple words we repeat time and again as we strive to make ourselves believe those words...all while ignoring the fact that if we are to invoke God’s plan at the end of our loved one's life, then we must also invoke God himself in creating the very disease that is taking our loved one from us. And we must also invoke God's name in helping to create the advances in medicine that allows for prolonging life, prolonging suffering, ultimately leading to the death of our loved one who in their death no longer resembles the vital person we once knew. And then, in God’s name, we pat ourselves on the back for our acts of civility and for blindly accepted what is supposed to be God's plan.

Again, there must be a better way...a better way that allows for the natural progression of death to occur, but to occur at the time that death becomes a welcome friend not an enemy to be feared.

Enter center stage 'Hospice'...a highly specialized health care option for those who are faced with no hope of recovery as the end of life draws near...usually in six months time or less...in most cases less...way less. Hospice involves a team of physicians, nurses, hospice aides, clergy, social workers, bereavement counselors, and volunteers who work together to meet the physical, social, emotional, and spiritual needs of each dying patient and their family. With palliative care either given at home, in hospital, in nursing homes, or in special freestanding hospice centers, hospice strives to address the issues most important to the patient’s physical needs while preparing the family for their final good-byes, keeping the focus on improving the person's quality of life for whatever time they have left, thus allowing them to pass with dignity.

To pass with dignity is hospice's hope but not always the reality for in many cases death, even with the aid of hospice, is anything but pretty.

 
Remember, hospice's goal is to improve a patient's quality of life for the time that remains all while allowing nature to take its course...to allow God's will to supersede the will of man and of medicine. This means that hospice does not treat the disease the patient is dying from... simply, the patient is made as comfortable as possible while their body naturally shuts down...shuts down as morphine or other opiates tries to alleviate any pain they may be experiencing. And many times that shutting down means no food or even water is given...translation: hospice is not for the faint of heart for death does not come easy nor pain free for many.

And while hospice provides a valuable service to many, hospice has its hands tied as well for hospice can do more to end the suffering of both the patient and their loved ones, that is if the legalities of death and the dogma of the religious could be put aside for the betterment of the person dying and for those left behind.

Let me tell you a story...a true story with an anything but happy ending as I just personally witnessed hospice in action with the recent death of my mother. Diagnosed young with Parkinson's disease...the same disease that actor Michael J. Fox is battling and will in the end lose...Parkinson's has but one outcome...death...a most horrific and gruesome death that many say is worse than the ravages of cancer for Parkinson's ravages the body but leaves the mind for the most part intact. In other words, the Parkinson's patient is aware of every change their body is going through...is aware of what horrors are to come next.

My mother battled Parkinson's for 40+ years and for the first 30 of those years medicine kept it in check and one would barely, if ever, notice that she had a disease that there was no cure for. Thanks to medical science my mom got to raise her family, see her children marry, and have children of their own...in other words my mom got to see the cycle of life continue on. But her last 10 years or so saw Parkinson's take over as she progressed through manageable stage 2 through needing full-time aides in stage 4, sometimes with the disease slowing for a bit, but then going full throttle into end-stage 5 over these past few months as her ability to walk, sit, move, and most horribly of all...to swallow...was taken away from her.

When one cannot swallow the 22 pills that has to be taken each day in order to live, and when one cannot move any part of their body without agonizing pain, pneumonia and sepsis sets in...and when one cannot swallow even a sip of water medical intervention has for all intents and purposes ended, the doctor signs off with the family's permission, and hospice takes over. And while I have high praise for hospice in general and for all who attended my mother, I do have to say once again that hospice can do more when the pain and suffering reaches a point that it has become nothing but a living hell.

And while some will not like what I am going to say it still must be said...as I believe hospice must be legally allowed to turn up the morphine drip thus ending the hell on Earth for our loved ones. This would take but a few seconds, and in my family's case would have spared my mother from five days of a living hell as well as spared our family the specifics of watching our mother and my father's beloved wife gasp for every breath, moan if even gently touched, drown in her own secretions, and die from starvation and thirst...yes starvation and thirst...for the truth is that for the five days my mom was in hospice she was not allowed even a sip of water for fear of aspiration causing more suffering without medical intervention being allowed. And it must be understand by all that once hospice is called in medical intervention ceases in full.

Is this really how we want our loved ones to journey 'home'...yet this is how many are dying throughout our country simply because the religious have dictated what the legalities of life and death should and should not be. Shouldn't we...the doctors and/or the family...be allowed to 'pull the plug' so to speak...just as we do for our cherished animals...when no hope whatsoever of survival is at hand...shouldn't the family be allowed to say our goodbyes to the person when they are still conscious and know we are there by their side instead of them being unconscious, drugged-up, and in reality alone in their death...that would be the humane and civilized thing to do yet that is what we are not allowed to do.

Sadly, death and dying in America is big business with end of life care not only becoming a matter of professional commitment coupled with responsibility, but of dollars and cents as well, all while the true wishes of the family are for the most part ignored. As my mother lay dying...as her body rotted from within...we begged and pleaded with both the doctors and with hospice for it to end not for our sake but for hers. When the unconscious cry through the pain they still feel...when they begged to die while still of this world...to be free of the physical horrors consuming them...we are legally forced to sit back and watch as the morphine is upped a bit at a time until their heart can take no more...and in my mom's case it took five long days of hell.

This, in a word, is cruel...cruel to the point that no one of faith should abide this as it goes against everything we believe our God would condone for isn't the basis of faith to be one with God...yet how can you be one with God when you are cursing Him for allowing this suffering to continue.

And this is cruel for nonbelievers as well for suffering becomes pain personified, and it is inbred in the human condition that suffering must be alleviated by any means humanly possible, yet we allow our loved ones to suffer and linger on as we fear the legalities that come with someone's passing by a human hand.

And so while the pain is finally over for my mom, my family's final memories of her are one of unbearable pain and suffering...pain and suffering that did not have to happen as there are better ways to leave this world and be one with God if only religious dogma and legalities were set aside for the good of not only the dying but of the ones left behind in their grief.

In Part 2 of this two-part series I will touch upon how legally a true death with dignity can be achieved while at the same time letting the dying be one with God as they travel on the final road 'home.'