Dear Group:

I don't understand how the medical system works when it comes to
sharing and providing information. Had my parents not
shared certain information with me and a certain neurologist, I might
not be alive today. I certainly would not be drug-free after
having spent 34 years on anti-convulsant medications. I know
first-hand the importance of being able to share information
about one's life. I believe such information can save lives. I am
convinced it saved mine.

For that reason, I am perplexed by the situation surrounding my
mother. She is currently living in a nursing home and taking
anti-convulsant medication. It is doubtful
she will ever get out. Nevertheless, I have information which I
believe might be able to help her doctors in her treatment. I have
written and shared this information with at least one of those
doctors. But, I remain in the dark with regard to what is
happening. Why? Because I do not have "power of attorney" with
regard to my mother. Doctors will not tell me anything.
They might even be ignoring the information I freely provided them. I
haven't the slightest idea. This makes absolutely no sense
to me. I am watching my mother go down-the-tubes and appear to be
powerless to do anything about it.

Perhaps I am a little cynical; but, I sometimes wonder if nursing
homes really want their patients to get well and leave? If people
get well and leave, so does the government subsidy payment (Medicare)
that entitles so many of them to be there in the first
place. It almost seems like getting people well is not "good for
business." And, healthcare is a business...big business.

My father went right from a nursing home into a hospital's intensive
care unit on life-support due the incompetent treatment he
received at that nursing home. He later died in that hospital on
their life-support system. Believe it or not, a year earlier the
nursing home's social worker approached my sister. At the time, she
was pushing my Dad in a wheelchair down the hallway.
The social worker stopped her to ask about making funeral arrangements
for him. Although my Dad could not talk, he could
hear everything the social worker was saying. Is this the way our
healthcare system is supposed to operate? What's wrong
with this picture?

I suppose just like there is an attorney-client privilege, there is
something similar between a patient and a doctor. But, should
this relationship prohibit important information from being shared
when a person's very life may hang in the balance? Is a
"power of attorney" limited to just one person - or can it be shared
within a family? What can be done to make our healthcare
system more responsive to its patients than it is to its own
beauracracy?

Please advise.

Lamar Morgan