".... Hospice calling and demanding that he check in and die......."
I've had two wives and a mother in law in hospice. That's not how it works.
Maybe it didnt work that way for you, overstreet, but that was Lee's experience. I was with him in the parking garage of MD Anderson in Orlando when they called him from Jacksonville. Lee opted not to check into Hospice and went on to clinical trials in DC instead.
That said, Ive also had a few loved ones in Hospice, and I would not choose to die in any other manner.
The work they do is god's work.
I think your point wasn't anything to do with hospice, the point was that 3 years ago, his oncologist here told him that he had a couple months to live, and had against his wishes already signed the script transferring his care to hospice. He wanted treatment, not hospice. It really has nothing to do with hospice, and everything to do with the oncologist.
It actually got worse than that if you recall, when he sent in the forms to change providers the same oncologist (who shall go nameless) retributorily refused to release his records to NIH so that he could be treated there, saying
he was the expert and "
I already told you there's nothing more to be done." God complex much? I had to send a letter with a draft complaint to Shands' general counsel before they finally handed them over.
Now here we are in 2014 and he's alive and kicking, although we ended up losing him in a sense anyway because once the trial sent it into remission and he got feeling better he moved to New York. Personally I was disgusted by the arrogance of the medical staff he was dealing with locally. If I ever have cancer (knock on wood) I'm going to go get worked on somewhere, anywhere, but here. It was basically 'you'll die 'cause I said so, and if you have a problem with it too bad, take it up with hospice.' It wasn't hospice's fault, they just got the script and followed their normal procedure, they didn't know the backstory and what (or more fairly, who) the actual problem was.
