Read this letter on the Liverpool Care Pathway

On 2 December I blogged about a Telegraph report on the Liverpool Care Pathway. In response to that report, Veronica Stabbins, a lady from Windsor, has given powerful testimony to the pro-euthanasia reality of the Pathway in a letter published yesterday - please read it below (you will need to scroll down the page, as it's about one-third down down the page). As I said on 2 December, I urge readers to check whether the Pathway is being operated in hospitals, hospices or care homes where you live. If so, please write to the management there and draw their attention courteously to the concerns which continue to be expressed about the Pathway.

Telegraph, letters, 12 December 2011

One-way path to death

SIR – My family had some experience of the Liverpool Care Pathway (report December 1) last year.
My mother, aged 99 and living in a nursing home, was taken as an emergency to a hospital A & E department with acute respiratory distress. My brother and I arrived soon after. The doctor told us there was no help for her and that she would probably only live for about two hours.

Obviously unwell, but responsive, she was transferred to a stark room and her saline drip taken down. A nurse wanted to remove her oxygen mask, but she insisted on keeping it, as it helped her breathing.

Another nurse was about to give her an injection of morphine, but I challenged this as my mother was not complaining of pain. The nurse said it was normal protocol.

In answer to our questions, we were told that Mother had been placed on the “care pathway of the dying” and that she would not be given any food or water but would have regular sedation.

We asked if she could be transferred to a private ward to be more comfortable in her final hours. This was arranged promptly. Her physician confirmed she was indeed terminally ill and no medication would be appropriate, only care. To everyone’s surprise, she began to improve and after a week could take sips of water and food.

Mother lived for a year, visited daily by family and friends. The highlight of her “extra” year was her 100th birthday, when she entertained 40 people to a tea party.

She would not have lived that extra year, had she been denied water and sedated in hospital last year.

Veronica Stabbins
Windsor, Berkshire

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