I do agree with you there is something wrong with our medical system
today or even you should have power of attorney but something is
wrong with this picture but i don't know what to say all you can say
you should fight for it so your mom is taken care of and that i am
treated with respect by a doctor i had rude treatment this last doct
dose not believe i have a learning disabilty but that ok I don't have
nothing to proof to him oh well Mary

--- In migraineswithepilepsy@yahoogroups.com, "Lamar Morgan"
<lamar@m...> wrote:
> 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