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Good Morning
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This week the news became very personal.
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The recent report on the Liverpool Care Pathway chaired by Baroness Neuberger recommended the phasing out of a procedure initiated in 2008, by which terminal patients can be denied water in the final stages of their life.Ìý
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The review panel heard horror stories in which dying patients caught in the cross-fire of limited beds and substandard treatment became ‘tick-box’ cases inÌýour palliative services.Ìý The end product: vulnerable people, literally dying of thirst in the heart of our so-called caring professions.
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But it wasn’t just news.Ìý It was for me, a poignant and painful throw-back to the events of my mother’s death 6 years ago which even now parade in my dreams in the stillness of the night.Ìý At 94, her small body diminished by age and pain.Ìý Her chattering humour silenced by a stroke.Ìý The personality of a fiercely proud woman located now, only in a single half-opened eye.
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And in those final hours, the – to me - incongruous decision to withhold water.
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It’s left me with eternal questions.Ìý Not only, did I do the right thing?Ìý But even more, did I agree to the bestÌýthing?...