Family member's 'accidental' death provides example for opposition to assisted suicide
http://www.ravallirepublic.com/news/opinion/mailbag/article_2051b845-5a8d-5cdc-be0e-0b7bfbb5e2bf.html?comment_form=true
This letter is being written for a right to live. We taxpayers paid a phenomenal amount of money when others decided it was time for my mother to die. She would not die! Three times she defied attempts on her life, costing her bed sores, hospice and her daughter being arrested while helping her (the latter arrest record was dismissed).
Mom succumbed in the hospital on Sept. 6, 2010. The coroner's report case No. 100906 lists congestive heart failure with oxygen deprivation and fentanyl therapy. The manner of death: accident.
Fentanyl is reported "to be 80 to 200 times as potent as morphine." A fentanyl patch of 100 mcg/hour has a range within 24 hours of 1.9-3.8ng/mL. Mom's death result was 2.7 ng/mL on or about 48 hours.
Complaint No. 2012-069-MED was filed with the Montana Department of Labor and Industry Board of Medical Examiners. The screening panel voted to dismiss the complaint with prejudice, which means the board may not consider the complaint in the future.
Because of my mother's experiences, I no longer believe in "physician-assisted suicide." Support House Bill 505.
Gail Bell,
Bozeman
