Jill and Phil say: 'Do Not Resuscitate'

Jill Brooks has Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, or COPD, and has to be supported using oxygen 24 hours a day.

As a result of her condition Jill will die soon and she has very specific wishes around how she wants to pass on.

Having discussed this with her husband Phil they have prepared a Do Not Resuscitate document with the help of private provider Healthcare at Home.

This is a legal document, which is signed by the GP as well as Jill and her husband Phil and clearly states that doctors are not to try to resuscitate even if her life depends on it.

Phil describes it as giving peace of mind to him when the time comes, but it was an emotional time when putting it together.

"It was difficult to talk about at first," says Phil, "but it's necessary."

Karen Beckett from Healthcare at Home supported them when they were putting the document together.

"Most people have an idea over how they would like to die but no one has asked the question," she says. "If we don't ask them then we are failing them."

Knowing that the document is there helps reassures Jill.

She says: "It gives me peace of mind knowing that my wishes will be respected."

Category:

Education

Tags:

• NHS local
• end of life
• copd
• healthcare at home
• eol
• dnr
• Healthcare at Home
• healthcareathome
• support
• family
• liaison
• service
• BEN
• PCT
• West Midlands
• health
• Birmingham

[Dschrepfer1]

All people on this earth are entitled to decide how they will pass into the next realm when it is clear there is no other alternative. Keeping someone alive just because you can doesn't make it right! Doctors/Governments/Pharmacy have no business telling us how to die, they spend too much time already telling us how to live! If I was in Jill's situation, I would want the same... God Bless her and let her suffer less, not more.

[mary64275]

Great couple, but they shouldn't have been asked to make decisions that weren't theirs to make; these should have been made by the doctors, who clearly recognised the futility of CPR and ventilation, rather than burdening Phil. A shame too, that this vital bit of Advance Care Planning was instigated by a private company and not Jill's GP or respiratory physician, who would have the benefit of a therapeutic relationship with her. Hope it all goes/went well.