Surprised this was revealed. Likely the medical team does not wish to be blamed when the Pope does die in the near future. Assuming it was his decision, PopeWatch can’t blame the Pope for not wanting to die in a hospital.
PopeWatch: Hospice
- Donald R. McClarey
Donald R. McClarey
Cradle Catholic. Active in the pro-life movement since 1973. Father of three, one in Heaven, and happily married for 43 years. Small town lawyer and amateur historian. Former president of the board of directors of the local crisis pregnancy center for a decade.
The hospital is no place to die. I’ve spent a lot of time in hospitals recently. And been involved with 2 hospices at home. Home is better, but I do caution people about hospice. When people leave the hospital for hospice, a lot of the hospice providers treat this as “This person is going to die soon so let’s help them along” Including terminating life continuing drugs like Lasix which I suspect the Holy Father is receiving. When my mother was discharged from the hospital to hospice they immediately wanted to remove lasix. The reason why she went into the hospital was because of excessive fluid build up in her lungs which was immediately resolved with the lasix in the hospital. We told them oh no you’re not. They also encourage a lot of pain lessening drugs which may or may not be needed. If we had taken her off of lasix my instincts tell me she would have been dead within a month. As it was she lived 5 1⁄2 months after discharge from the hospital. My caution is to find a hospice provider that is Catholic. At the very least, get them to send nurses that are Catholic. That made the situation with my wife much easier.
Absolutely! A “Good Death” has to mean that the Faith be given primary place, not officious “health care professionals” with their meaningless busyness. Let me die surrounded by my brethren, holding tapers, and recitng the prayers for the dying.
Very many of us have not the means to die at home. Medicine has expanded that period of suffering between active life and final death. (Perhaps that is because we moderns need the period of pain to turn from the sins of active life and back to Christ.)
For the many, hospice is dealt out in the nursing home under the care of workers who have either had the compassion squeezed out of them by “policy” or enjoy their power over old folks. Dad told me that one of his attendants roughed him up, but we both knew that saying anything would only make his care worse. They were already very… frugal… with his morphine. Not like if he did become addicted he would ever have made it back to the street to become a junkie.
Many of these caregivers have lost a lot of their souls. If you have a loved one in a facility, visit -and visit without warning. There is a vast difference in the level of care if they know someone is watching. If they are receiving care at home, remove portable valuables. They took often disappear. Visit there too, without prior notice.
If your experience is different, give thanks to God! If you are the healthcare worker who is not as I have described, may God richly bless you for it!
As for myself, I hope that Christ will take me swiftly, at a moment in which I am well prepared.
TBO:
Very good advice.