Wednesday 3 April 2013

Liverpool Care Pathway - The Pro-Death Candidacy

The Communitarian Profile

The NHS is a shambles. To be ‘pro-life’ appears to be a slur and a slander, but the ethos, it has to be said, in our hospitals and medical facilities is pro-death.

Mail Online reported on Baby George whose care was downsized to palliative:
After an operation at eight weeks old, George was placed on a ‘palliative care pathway’, meaning his life could be prolonged but his condition would not be cured. 
His condition would not be cured. It is the pro-death Communitarian reasoning that, in 'fairness', in rationing scarce medical resources the lives of the very young and the very old are expendable.

Baby George's life was saved only at the insistence of  his mum and nan that he be transferred.

Now, Mail Online reports -

The children lucky to be alive after being 'let down' by Leeds

'My doctor just said there was no hope at all'

Kerrylee Stovell has a 'fantastic whirlwind' of a little boy in her son Kori. But she claims she was put under pressure by doctors at Leeds General Infirmary to terminate her pregnancy.

'No hope': Kori Parkin-Stovell's treatment at Leeds General Infirmary was 'disgusting', his mum claims
'No hope': Kori Parkin-Stovell's treatment at Leeds General Infirmary was 'disgusting', his mum claims
The 33-year-old was told during her 20-week scan that her baby had hypoplastic left heart syndrome, a rare heart defect in which the left ventricle is underdeveloped.

But when she was referred to the LGI, she says her treatment was 'disgusting'.

She said: 'Four doctors came in, which was totally overwhelming, and we were given the diagnosis.

'A female doctor stayed in the room and said we had three options.

'We could interrupt the pregnancy, we could go through with the pregnancy and he would die in my arms when he was born, or he could have three stages of operations, which she didn't recommend.

'She said it would be very, very cruel to bring him into the world and she said she strongly advised us not to go through with the pregnancy. It was the way they went about it. It wasn't informative or giving us a choice, she was just saying “there's no hope at all”.' 

Mrs Stovell, from Somercotes, Derbyshire, got in touch with charity Little Hearts Matter which she says 'gave me hope, but not false hope' and told her there were survivors of the condition.

She said: 'When we rang Leeds to say we wanted to carry on with the pregnancy they were really angry and horrible about it.

'We didn't hear anything from them for six weeks after that, until we received a letter saying I would give birth in Birmingham at Queen Elizabeth Hospital.

'They were so relaxed about it and put us at ease straight away.' Mrs Stovell was induced at 38 weeks and Kori, pictured left, was born on August 24, 2011.

“When we rang Leeds to say we wanted to carry on with the pregnancy they were really angry and horrible about it…” 
'Advice to parents is based on agreed professional protocols and the best evidence available.'
The pro-death candidacy is downsizing care. This is the Communitarian programme. To strive for life is an act of cruelty. If your Communitarian profile doesn’t fit, they will let you go, even help you on your way with some palliative pathway.

At The Leeds, it would appear that if a parent expresses too much concern for their child they may even be accused of having Munchausen syndrome by proxy [Mail Online] and be subjected to months of investigation.


Mail Online reports that the Leeds General Infirmary's children's heart unit has already been earmarked for closure under national plans to centralise children's heart services. Centralisation reduces choice in care options.

Leeds General Infirmary's children's heart unit had already been earmarked for closure under national plans to centralise children's heart services. 
But it was given a second chance last Wednesday when the High Court ruled the decision-making process to shut it down had been 'legally-flawed'. 
The decision by NHS bosses to shut it down anyway 24 hours later has been branded 'suspicious timing' by critics.

The suspension came just 24 hours after a High Court ruling quashed plans to close the LGI children's heart surgery unit. 
A campaign has been waged to save the unit after it was earmarked for closure under national plans to centralise children's heart services. The process to close it was halted on Wednesday when Mrs Justice Nicola Davies ruled the decision-making process to shut it down had been 'legally flawed'. 
Greg Mulholland, Liberal Democrat MP for Leeds North West, said it 'beggars belief' that the unit was shut down 'without warning, just one day after the decision to close the Leeds unit was proved in a court of law to have been unlawful'.

Mail Online reports -


'They told me to let my daughter go'

A mother claims her daughter's 'life chances' have been damaged after surgeons at Leeds botched her daughter's heart operation.

Sarah White, 35, says she felt she had to sell her home in West Yorkshire and move to Newcastle to ensure her child Lucy, pictured left, would receive the best care.

Lucy, now eight, was born with a congenital heart defect in which the right ventricle of the heart did not develop properly. She had surgery in Leeds when she was ten weeks old which appeared to have been a success.

But three weeks later her health deteriorated. Miss White said: 'We were taken by ambulance to Leeds General Infirmary, where a consultant said Lucy was inoperable, that there was nothing more Leeds could do for her and that she was now classed as terminally ill and we should enjoy the time we had left with her. It was shocking.'


Miss White asked for a second opinion, but doctors apparently refused. 'They told me to let Lucy go', she said.

Miss White then contacted a cardiac nurse at the Freeman Hospital in Newcastle, who told her to bring Lucy to see them. She said: 'They immediately looked at Lucy and said 'we can work with her'.

When Lucy had surgery to 're-plumb' her heart Miss White said surgeons found evidence of a procedure botched by Leeds.

She said: 'Lucy may need a heart transplant in the future, but might not be eligible for one because her heart was damaged during the initial surgery. It has damaged her life chances.

"When Lucy had surgery to 're-plumb' her heart Miss White said surgeons found evidence of a procedure botched by Leeds."

'Letting go' and placing on palliative pathways may be one way of covering up 'botched' surgery.


In this case reported in the National Reference Center for Bioethics Literature on Withholding or Withdrawing Nutrition or Hydration, a charge is made and then quashed by the court:       
Barber/Nejdl v. Superior Court of Los Angeles
County, 147 Cal. App. 3d 1006,195 Cal. Rptr. 484
(1983).

Clarence Herbert, a 55 year old man, became
comatose following surgery, and his physicians,
Doctors Barber and Nejdl, agreed that he would
not recover from this coma. After meeting with
Mr. Herbert’s family, the doctors removed the
patient’s life-support systems, including his
intravenous feeding tubes. A nurse complained
about the decision, saying that it had been made
hastily. The district attorney prosecuted the two
physicians for murder; he said that their termina-
tion of treatment was to conceal malpractice in
surgery and they had stopped treatment too
quickly. The California Court of Appeals dis-
missed the charges and ruled that they were not
required to treat if there were no hope of recov-
ery; the court also said that a spouse could make
such a decision if the patient were incompetent.
It ruled that provision of artificial nourishment
and hydration was no different from using other
medical equipment (V, Mishkin 1986).

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