Three High Profile...
people in public life have sadly passed away with cancer, the last one will always be controversial for many reasons but it's a ghastly disease and unfortunately statistics suggest we'll all either know someone who has it or we'll get it. I have now lost both my parents to it. I believe they say one in three is the average, in this household, it's been two out of three so far. :-(
Last week it was the singer Donna Summer, this week Robin Gibb and Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, the person they say may/may not have helped bring down the aeroplane over the Scottish town of Lockerbie.
I don't know enough to have an informed opinion.
However, I can remember not long after Mum went into the nursing home, the headlines on the magazine with the Daily Mail screamed out that Robin Gibb had beaten cancer and the Dr's were amazed. I thought that he was tempting fate. Even if to some it might offer hope. I have found that magazine by chance, it has a great big photo of him on the cover and in big lettering the headline says..."All Clear! Robin Gibbs amazing recovery from cancer. This was published on March 31st 2012. Approx 7 weeks later.
Like Mum, he's been a fighter but in the end the situation was so similar by what it said on the news...they were trying to build him up by feeding him because he'd lost so much weight, they say he had developed pneumonia, it does seem to go hand in hand with cancer.
Last week it was the singer Donna Summer, this week Robin Gibb and Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, the person they say may/may not have helped bring down the aeroplane over the Scottish town of Lockerbie.
I don't know enough to have an informed opinion.
However, I can remember not long after Mum went into the nursing home, the headlines on the magazine with the Daily Mail screamed out that Robin Gibb had beaten cancer and the Dr's were amazed. I thought that he was tempting fate. Even if to some it might offer hope. I have found that magazine by chance, it has a great big photo of him on the cover and in big lettering the headline says..."All Clear! Robin Gibbs amazing recovery from cancer. This was published on March 31st 2012. Approx 7 weeks later.
Like Mum, he's been a fighter but in the end the situation was so similar by what it said on the news...they were trying to build him up by feeding him because he'd lost so much weight, they say he had developed pneumonia, it does seem to go hand in hand with cancer.
posted by The Great Gildersleeve | 5:25 am
4 Comments:
Sad about Donna Summer and Robin Gibb who were in their early sixties.........both very talented people, and relatively young.
A lot of very old people succumb to pneumonia, many after a fall.....it appears to be par to the course.....it is a killer.
As far as I know it is the Morphine that is instrumental is most people's death. It is a strong CNS opiate and suppresses breathing and causes the lungs not too function properly and hence pneumonia. I'm afraid it is that or severe pain. I know which I would prefer.
Sorry to sound matter of fact but that's my nature.
My dear aunt has just been diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukaemia. She is too old for bone marrow treatment and so the inevitable is not so very far away.
Nick
So my concerns about Mum being given too much morphine at the end might've been justified after all and when she started to show signs of sweating, a different way of breathing I should've insisted on a Dr being called in which means I was probably wrong to go by how the home was treating her.
Mum wasn't always in pain...in the end morphine had been aministered when I could not say I witnessed it so could I say that Mum was helped on her way sooner than she should've been?
That would play into my Cousin's believe(and his wife works in a home)that Mum did not get the care she should've but it won't bring Mum back, how will I feel if I was to think I helped end Mum's life in around about way.
Does it matter in the end, when that end is inevitable? I know that I would not (did not) want my parents to suffer more than necessary for my own selfish ends.
Lingering on for another few weeks/months would not achieve anything unless recovery was possible.
There is no point in going over these things again and again. True, if someone was healthy and their death very untimely or indeed unexpected, yes, then have questions or doubts about the doctor's actions.
I have guilt, year later as I was not at either of my parent's sides when then died but was informed by the hospital when that had occurred. The fact was that we could no longer manage them at home and therefore they ended their days in a hospital.
Nick
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