Liverpool Care Pathway - Serious Life Café

Death may maraud and Fear may plunder strength to carry on, yet do not surrender easy life's precious gift.



They cannot ‘diagnose’ dying. They cannot predict death. They cannot get inside your head and see your pain.

The Surprise Question aka the Barton Method is founded on fallacy. There are no certain visual signs. They can and do get it very, very wrong. These are dangerous, dangerous people.

"If I should ever seek death - there are several times when my progressive condition challenges me - I want to guarantee that you are there supporting my continued life and its value. The last thing I want is for you to give up on me, especially when I need you most," - Lady Jane Campbell

Lady Jane, those who follow and adhere to the Lakhani Recommendations really would give up on you!

Pertinent reading –

Liverpool Care Pathway - When Doctors Lack Capacity

Liverpool Care Pathway – "Let's Talk About It..."

Here is one young man who was told he wouldn't see Christmas...

This is Mail Online –

It would have been the quirkiest of funerals.

The coffin was to be driven in the same hearse that once carried Winston Churchill, then brought into the crematorium to the sound of Move Your Feet, a 2003 pop hit by Danish duo Junior Senior.

Inside, the relatives would be waiting in specially selected fancy dress.

And Deryn Blackwell, just 14, was to be laid to rest sporting his pink mohawk hair cut and wearing a suit.

But the boy who had suffered two types of cancer and was given just days to live last December has now found himself on an unexpected road to recovery – one so astonishing it has left the medical community dumbfounded.

Even as death confronts us, life may be just a leap away.

- Mail Online

A Life Café toast to this gentleman -

...handed life's chalice at which to sup joyously.
And this young man...

...Whose steadfast, unyielding mum refused to "let him go" as the doctors had advised.

"It's like, how dare you not fight for my son's life?" JJ told CNN. "It really took us ... getting very aggressive and assertive to save our son's life, because they weren't going to do it."

This young man was struck down by a hit and run driver. A thoughtless act, perhaps blameless and unintentioned, is made blameworthy by failing to stop and face the consequences of the deed.

There are always consequences. We may not  wish to face that plain and simple truth but face it we will. We do not escape our misdeeds and, in the end, all is weighed and paid. 

This is News.com –

A TEENAGER who was left with severe brain damage after a brutal hit-and-run has made an amazing recovery, which his parents attribute to fish oil. 

Grant Virgin was left with a horrific list of injuries after being struck by the car in September 2012, including a torn aorta, a traumatic brain injury, compound bone fractures and spinal fractures. Doctors said the boy, then 16, probably wouldn't live through the night. 

But Grant’s mother, JJ, wouldn’t accept their recommendation "to let him go". 

"It's like, how dare you not fight for my son's life?" JJ told CNN. "It really took us ... getting very aggressive and assertive to save our son's life, because they weren't going to do it." 

From then on, Grant’s family vowed to try everything they could to bring him back – even if it meant going against doctor's orders. 

Grant underwent multiple surgeries to stabalise his body, but he remained in a coma with severe brain damage. 

That’s when a friend suggested the Virgins try progesterone, an unorthodox treatment associated with reduced inflammation in the brain and improved brain function. 

However slim the chance or futile, you try; you always try...!

- Mirror

 A hero schoolteacher who saved the life of her baby nephew on a busy motorway learned CPR after her own son almost died, it emerged today.Pamela Rauseo leapt from her four-wheel drive when her sister’s five-month-old son, Sebastian de la Cruz, suddenly stopped crying in a traffic jam and started turning blue.

The 37-year-old was able to give the child the kiss of life after learning infant resuscitation seven years ago when her own little boy stopped breathing, also aged five months.

- WDAZ TV

A stranger saves a man's life in Oslo, Minnesota. 66-year-old Rick Hendrickson was outside his home when he had a heart attack. A mail carrier happened to be driving by and helped save his life.

Hendrickson said he was going outside to check on his grandson, who was shoveling the sidewalk. Suddenly, Hendrickson grabbed his hands to his face and slithered to the ground.

- Mail Online

And a toast to the family of Jahi McMath who are to be honoured on March 27^th in Philadelphia with the Terri Schiavo Life and Hope Award.

This is Life and Hope –

What will you do to celebrate Living Matters Week...?

Will you learn to give the gift of life – Learn CPR…?


Finally, a final thought for Life Café. Would you have chosen life or death?

Tina chose life...


This is the The Philly CBS Local –

With his condition deteriorating fast, Chris was transferred to two other hospitals.  But the sepsis continued to spread causing extensive tissue damage.  With Chris in an induced coma, his wife Tina had to make the horrifying decision, amputate or let him die.

“I was in shock.  I mean I love him.  I wasn’t about to let him go.  He was 31 at the time.  I got through it.  I dealt with it,” said Tina.