Hospice nurses helped both of my parents die as quickly and peacefully as possible. My father had congestive heart failure - a slow death over months, and my mother had dementia, and eventually started losing the ability to control her basic functions like breathing and swallowing.
If it weren't for the kind advice of my mother's doctor, who instructed all of her caregivers NOT to allow her to be taken to the hospital or be picked up by an ambulance, she might have ended up in a vegetative state in a hospital as well. He explained how it's a hospital's duty to do everything in their power to resuscitate someone, regardless of whether it's really humane or not.
It was awful watching them both die, but sitting with your family while you're given liquid morphine is much better than going through a frightening, painful, lonely death in a hospital.
If it weren't for the kind advice of my mother's doctor, who instructed all of her caregivers NOT to allow her to be taken to the hospital or be picked up by an ambulance, she might have ended up in a vegetative state in a hospital as well. He explained how it's a hospital's duty to do everything in their power to resuscitate someone, regardless of whether it's really humane or not.
It was awful watching them both die, but sitting with your family while you're given liquid morphine is much better than going through a frightening, painful, lonely death in a hospital.