Traumatic Impact & Stress While Loved One Dies Slowly & In Distress

The current policy at the hospital where my father in-law died gave him no choice but to suffer a slow starvation until his body gave out, which was extremely traumatic and stressful to his family members. No one should have to go through this, and I will advocate for changes to legislation so that people and their loved ones can truly have options to die with dignity and compassion. My father in-law fought lymphoma for about six to seven years, and in the last six months of his life, he was constantly fighting illnesses because of his compromised immune system. In the last three weeks/month of his life, it became questionable whether he would recover from the complex and difficult issues, with a combination of the lymphoma, hyponatremia, and infection. An ambulance was called to their home on more than one occasion, and he was discharged and then he went back into hospital for two weeks. Unfortunately, after a week of being in the hospital - when his condition worsened, because of the hyponatremia, his choice to end his life was no longer available to him, because he was deemed not of able mind to make the decision, even though he could follow instructions from a nurse and laugh and respond to family conversations. He then had to slowly starve to death with his wife, children, and grandchildren witnessing the horrifying slow torture of their beloved husband, father and grandfather over the course of a total of two weeks which felt like an eternity because family were at his side around the clock because he was constantly agitated and in pain - bleeding, starving, soiling himself, moaning, taking off his gown, kicking off his blankets, alternating chills/fever, choking, not able to eat any more, with family in extreme distress, anguish and exhaustion, not knowing at any moment if he'd die and wanting to be by his side when the moment arrived. The amount of emotional, physical, and psychological scarring that this has had on us is going to be long lasting - as my mother in-law has had health issues, my husband, my sister-inlaw, myself from the lengthy care-giving and now care-giving to my mother in-law and my aging parents, and my brother in-law's aging parents. The toll that this problematic policy has on numerous lives and the impact on middle aged parents, relatives, children, workplaces, society as a whole, from not giving people a humane way to pass with their loved ones at their side without torture is more than tragic - it's unbearably inhuman and will cost more and more lives. If a person cannot recover from a condition like hyponatremia that no longer responds to any treatment and will starve to death, he/she ought to be granted a humane way to die with dignity. There are many common irrecoverable conditions that ought to be covered by hospital policies and federal law to ensure no torture to citizens and their family members from witnessing their loved ones tortured.