New Case - Don Holley

This is not exactly a futility case.  St. Mary's Medical Center in San Francisco actually had consent from patient Don Holley's agent to stop treatment such as CANH.  But his family contends that the decision exceeded the scope of the agent's authority and the hospital failed to provide adequate care in any case.   (ABC SF blog)  The family wrote-up the case for the hospital's ethics committee.  Their concerns are as follows:

• The hospital was too quick to put ninety-year-old Don Holley on "comfort care"; he suffered a stroke, but they say he showed signs of improvement


• The hospital employs an odd version of "comfort care" by withholding nutrition and hydration.  The doctor made it clear Uncle Don would die within two days from the lack of water. 


• A nurse failed to take specific steps that could have saved Uncle Don's life.  He was choking on his own blood from a nose bleed, and some nurses cleared the blood well with the use of suction.  After a shift change, the new nurse failed to suction Uncle Don properly; he died from asphyxiating on his own blood.


• A nurse failed to allow a family member to use the suction on Uncle Don in his last moments.