Helen H. Moore's Blog, page 760
June 3, 2016
The Latest: Manner, cause of abducted boy’s death pending
DETROIT (AP) — The Latest on the discovery of a young boy’s body in Detroit and the arrest of a suspect found in Ohio (all times local):
2:40 p.m.
An autopsy has determined that a 13-year-old Detroit boy who was abducted and killed this week was not shot to death.
The Wayne County medical examiner’s office conducted an autopsy Friday. County spokesman Lloyd Jackson said in a statement that the manner and cause of Deontae Mitchell’s death has yet to be determined, pending further investigation, but that the teenager was not shot.
Deontae had been riding his bike with a cousin Tuesday night when he was abducted outside a market on the city’s east side. Surveillance video shows a man forcing the boy into a car.
Police believe that man was 45-year-old Gregory Walker, who was arrested Thursday with a woman in Toledo, Ohio. Deontae’s body was found Thursday in a vacant lot on Detroit’s east side.
Two other men have since been arrested in Detroit.
____
12:25 p.m.
Police say a fourth person sought following the abduction and death of a 13-year-old Detroit boy who was riding a bike along a city street has been taken into custody.
Detroit police Chief James Craig says the 51-year-old man was arrested Friday, but no charges have been filed against him or three others.
Craig also said that police are awaiting the results of an autopsy on the body of Deontae Mitchell, which was found Thursday in a vacant lot. Deontae disappeared Tuesday night while riding bikes with a cousin.
Surveillance video shows Deontae being pursued by a man who grabbed the boy by his arm and forced him into a car. Police believe that man was 45-year-old Gregory Walker, who was arrested with a woman in Toledo, Ohio.
Another man was arrested Thursday in Detroit.
What Big Pharma doesn’t want you to know about the opioid epidemic
The prescription opioid epidemic is not new. It began when Pharma rolled out and aggressively marketed time-released opioids like Oxycontin, driving “pill mills” that distributed as many as 9 million Oxys in a six-month span. What is new is the media finally calling Pharma out on the many cagey ways it got people hooked on opioids and heroin (and continues to do so), how the FDA unabashedly helps Pharma with shocking new approvals, and how people in real pain, especially the poor and African Americans, are some of the hidden victims of the epidemic. When all the reports are in, the Pharma-driven opioid epidemic may be one of the biggest and deadliest cons in recent history.
Your Patients Won’t Get Addicted, We Promise!
When Purdue Pharma and other Pharma companies began to aggressively market opioids for even minor pain, promising practitioners they were not addictive, it had been decades since the need to tightly control narcotics had been the mandate. Many newly graduating doctors, young medical professionals and their patients did not remember the opiate addictions of the 1930s, ’40s and ’50s and the many U.S. troops who got hooked on heroin in Vietnam. (Certainly no one remembered the notorious opium dens of early America.) Why should these drugs be so highly restricted, said Pharma, banking on the U.S.’ short memory. Why should they be restricted to short-term surgical pain, accidents and treatment of cancer and terminal pain conditions?
The misinformation was abetted by a perverse pro-opioid movement of users who claim the real problem is the media’s “misunderstanding” of opioids and overly tight controls on the pills. (After all, you are never addicted until your source is cut off.) Such vocal defenders are not a coincidence. They are the result of Pharma’s deliberate, multimillion-dollar campaigns to cast chronic pain and other nonmalignant pain conditions as requiring opioids and Pharma’s thriving parallel addiction business. Twenty years ago, none of the pain conditions now presented as requiring opioids would have been presented that way. Nor were between 40 and 52 people a day dying from opioids.
The picture is worsened by the fact that there are no studies showing that prescribing long-term opioids for chronic pain is effective but there is evidence it makes pain worse.
Between 1996 and 2002, Purdue Pharma “funded more than 20,000 pain-related educational programs through direct sponsorship or financial grants and launched a multifaceted campaign to encourage long-term use of [opioid painkillers] for chronic non-cancer pain,“ reports Vox Media. Included in the monetary persuasion was financial support to the American Pain Society, the American Academy of Pain Medicine, the Federation of State Medical Boards, the Joint Commission, pain patient groups, and other organizations, writes Vox, which in turn “advocated for more aggressive identification and treatment of pain, especially use of [opioid painkillers].
The American Geriatrics Society also drove the opioid epidemic. In 2009, it changed its guidelines to recommend opioids for “all patients with moderate to severe pain,” before over-the-counter pain relievers, such as ibuprofen and naproxen. Half the panel’s experts “had financial ties to opioid companies, as paid speakers, consultants or advisers at the time the guidelines were issued,” investigative reporter John Fauber reports. The University of Wisconsin’s Pain & Policy Studies Group also took $2.5 million from opioid makers even as it pushed for looser use of narcotic painkillers, he reports.
A pain guide supported by the American Geriatrics Society and funded by Janssen (which makes Duragesic, Ultram ER and Nucynta) claims that opioids “allow people with chronic pain to get back to work, run, and play sports,” and describes worries that patients may need increased doses of opioids over time as a “myth.”
The guide omits opioid risks but cites “disadvantages” for ibuprofen (Advil) and naproxen (Aleve). While over-the-counter pain meds certainly can cause stomach bleeding, opioids cause hormonal changes, constipation, a decrease in immune responses, fracture risks, liver and kidney risks, cardiopulmonary, pulmonary and congestive heart problems, sleep apnea, mental problems and even death in those who combine them with other drugs. Which would you take?
Another lobbying example is the drug company-funded group IMMPACT, whose stated goal is “improving the design, execution, and interpretation of clinical trials of treatments for pain.” One of the improved designs it recommends is “enriched enrollment”—elimination of non-responders and subjects who don’t tolerate a drug before the clinical trial begins. Both Purdue and Janssen have acknowledged how useful the lobbying group has been to them. Of course “improving” clinical trial procedures lowers drug company trial costs and heightens the chance a drug candidate is approved.
Why OxyContin Hooks and Kills
Some pills are more addictive than others, and the difference often boils down to half-life—how long the drug remains in your system. When a drug with euphoric and psychological effects (like opioids or benzodiazepines) leaves the body rapidly, there are often withdrawal effects. The classic example of withdrawal of a short-acting substance is the alcohol hangover. Alcohol leaves the body so quickly there can be tremors, shakes, anxiety, and in alcoholics, seizures. (That is why alcohol withdrawal is treated with long-acting drugs that exert some of the same effects on the body as alcohol but leave more slowly.) Xanax is considered the most addictive of the benzodiazepines because it has the shortest half-life—after only about six hours the drug leaves the body and the person craves more.
In a recent expose by the Los Angeles Times that looked at thousands of Purdue emails, memos, meeting minutes, sales reports, FDA records, patent records and journal articles over many years, Oxycontin’s notorious addiction numbers stem from this same phenomenon. Purdue Pharma deliberately marketed Oxycontin as a 12-hour med—providing pain relief for 12 hours, the company said, and only requiring a twice-a-day dose. Records now show that Purdue knew the claim was a lie, as did its sales reps, patients, medical professional and even regulatory authorities. At best, Oxy only provided eight hours of pain relief exposing patients to returning pain, withdrawal symptoms and dangerously inadequate care.
Purdue sales reps also gave prescribers Oxycontin fishing hats, stuffed plush toys and music compact discs (“Get in the Swing With Oxycontin”) in shameless promotions that were “unprecedented for a schedule II opioid,” says a paper in the American Journal of Public Health.
Why wouldn’t Purdue just admit the misrepresentation instead of exposing patients to pain, withdrawal symptoms, addiction and the danger of escalating dosages? In a letter to the FDA, Purdue lawyers said the reason they maintained the fiction was “Purdue hadn’t submitted studies to the FDA to support more frequent dosing, the FDA had approved Oxycontin as a 12-hour drug, and 12-hour dosing was more convenient for patients,” says the Times. A higher dose rather than a more frequent dose also made more money for the company even though higher doses are more likely to cause death.
Who is Purdue? According to the LA Times, the Sacklers, “a New York family of physicians and philanthropists” whose name “adorns a wing of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and several galleries in the British Museum” bought Purdue in 1952. The Sacklers main source of revenue until the 1980s was a morphine pill for cancer called MS Contin. Oxycontin was concocted to ensure revenues when MS Contin’s patent ran out—also widening the market to non-cancer uses. “We do not want to niche Oxycontin just for cancer pain,” Purdue meeting minutes say. Purdue has reaped at least $31 billion from the marketing maneuver, says the Times.
FDA Has Helped Pharma Sell Opioids
While on the surface, the FDA appears to be addressing the opioid addiction epidemic, it actually enabled it and continues to do so. As the full impact of the opioid addiction epidemic became apparent, the FDA responded by removing the “moderate pain” indication on opioid labels, trying to restrict their use to severe pain.
While time-release opioids were created to discourage addict behavior in patients which could erupt every time the effect of short-acting opioids wore off (and to protect patients from possible liver damage from Tylenol and other drugs added to short-acting opioids), drug users and drug abusers soon found they could crush and snort long-acting opioids and even shoot them like heroin.
As the opioid addiction epidemic grew, Pharma complied with FDA directives to create abuse-proof versions of Oxycontin and other long-acting drugs while continuing to wave through opioids that were still “abusable.” On the same day in 2013 that the FDA announced its new Vicodin restrictions, it approved the long-acting drug Zohydro made from hydrocodone bitartrate which has five to 10 times the abuse potential of Oxy.
The FDA did so over the warnings of many medical and public health groups and its own advisory committee.
In 2014, the FDA approved Tarrginiq ER while admitting it could still cause overdoses and euphoria. In 2015 the FDA approved opioids for children as young as 11. Opioids like fentanyl, Actiq and Zydone, a long-acting hydrocodone, are not abuse-deterrent and public health officials and pain experts are baffled by the FDA’s apparent tin ear to the national opioid problem. In March, the FDA “encouraged” opioid makers to develop abuse-deterrent versions of their drugs.
In an even more amazing move that promotes rather than restricts opioids, in April Congress passed and President Obama signed a law that actually curtails Drug Enforcement Administration powers to pursue pharmacies and drug wholesalers thought to be fanning the opioid epidemic.
“I’m shocked that Congress and the president would constrain DEA from taking on corporate drug dealers in the midst of the worst addiction epidemic in U.S. history,” said Andrew Kolodny, the director of Physicians for Responsible Opioid Prescribing and an addiction specialist. “This law allows opioid distributors to reap enormous profits and operate with impunity at the public’s expense.”
Why would the government consign more users to abuse, addiction and possible death? Congress is taking the considerations of “deep-pocketed chain pharmacies such as CVS and Walgreens and drug distribution companies like Cardinal Health and McKesson” into account, says the New York Times.
Victims Include Those in Pain
The toll of Pharma’s wide marketing of opioids and the breadth of FDA approvals is not just on those who have become addicted (and have even become addicted to the treatment drugs like Suboxone). People in acute pain are often thought to be abusers and are denied opioids, especially when they are poor or minorities.
“People who are poor, African American or both are less likely to be prescribed opioids for pain than well-off white patients,” reported Reuters. In one study, “46 percent of white patients with moderate or severe pain were given opioids, compared to 39 percent of black patients. And 45 percent of non-Hispanic people received the drugs, versus 40 percent of Hispanics.”
Even black children with acute appendicitis, a painful emergency, are less likely to be prescribed painkillers in the emergency room than white children, researchers reported on NBC news. And while the Western world struggles with too many opioids and addictions, people in terrible pain in poor countries often go without opioids altogether.
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The testimonials for Trump University are as fraudulent as the school itself
With Trump University facing a fraud lawsuit, GOP nominee Donald Trump has released a video featuring positive testimonials of the college from supposed former students. While past attendees of Trump University appeared overwhelmingly dissatisfied with the now defunct college, the ad, at first appears, to debunk their claim. Just one problem: the ad appears just as fraudulent as the school.
According to the Associated Press, “Not disclosed by the campaign is that Hoban is also a Trump family acquaintance whose protein-infused water is stocked at Trump’s golf courses, restaurants and resorts.”
Hoban told AP that, “his business relationship with the Trump organization bloomed after he attended a charity event held last year held by a Trump family foundation. Trump’s son Eric Trump later tweeted Hoban a personal thank you for his $25,000 donation.”
The videos also featured a woman named Michelle Gunn, who turns out to have other ties to Trump. Per the AP:
Not mentioned by the campaign is that the celebrity billionaire previously endorsed a self-help book authored by Gunn’s teenage son, titled “Schooled for Success: How I Plan to Graduate from High School a Millionaire.” A website promoting the book also features a photo of a smiling Houston Gunn posing with Trump in what appears to be the then reality TV star’s Trump Tower office.
The Better Business Bureau was never enamored with Trump University.
“Starting in at least the fall of 2009, top Trump University officials engaged in a year-and-a-half-long campaign to get the Better Business Bureau to bump up the organization’s rating, which documents say ranged from B-plus to D-minus from the fall of 2009 to the summer of 2011,” Politico reported.
But it’s not just the Trump University testimonials that require a closer look. Trump, whose campaign has centered on demagoguing illegal immigrants, has done the nearly impossible and ramped up his attacks by using surrogates to perpetuate his message. At a campaign rally in Anaheim last week, Trump supporter Sabine Durden took the mic to share her story.
Durden’s son Dominic was killed in a car accident in Moreno Valley, California nearly three years by an illegal immigrant from Guatemala. Since the tragedy, Durden continues to speak out against illegal immigration and even penned a letter to Obama last year. However, illegal immigrants are actually less likely than native-born citizens to commit crimes.
According to American Immigration Council:
Between 1990 and 2013, the foreign-born share of the U.S. population grew from 7.9 percent to 13.1 percent and the number of unauthorized immigrants more than tripled from 3.5 million to 11.2 million.
During the same period, FBI data indicate that the violent crime rate declined 48 percent—which included falling rates of aggravated assault, robbery, rape, and murder. Likewise, the property crime rate fell 41 percent, including declining rates of motor vehicle theft, larceny/robbery, and burglary.
In 2012, early reports of the accident didn’t even mention the immigration status of Juan Zacarias Lopez Tzun, Dominic Durden’s killer, but they did note there was something else the driver didn’t have: a license.
June 2, 2016
Phoenix police: mother stabs, partially dismembers 3 sons
PHOENIX (AP) — The Phoenix mother had been transported to the hospital covered in blood with stab wounds to her neck and abdomen when police officers searching her house opened a closet to a grim discovery.
Inside, officers found the bodies of her three young sons.
Police discovered the dead boys — ages 2 months old and 5 and 8 years old — in a closet full of miscellaneous items. Phoenix police Sgt. Trent Crump said the youngest boy’s body was in a suitcase.
Crump said the children appeared to have been stabbed to death and “parts of their bodies were dismembered.”
The 29-year-old mother is in the hospital in critical condition with self-inflicted stab wounds. Police say she is the primary suspect and will face charges.
Aerial demonstration team crashes throughout history
AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. (AP) — Two fighter jets from the military’s elite performance teams crashed within hours of each other Thursday. A U.S. Air Force Thunderbird jet crashed in Colorado Springs, Colorado, following the group’s traditional performance the Air Force Academy commencement. A Navy’s Blue Angels pilot was killed when his F/A-18 fighter jet crashed near Nashville, Tennessee, where the team was practicing for a scheduled performance this weekend.
The aerial demonstration teams have crashed dozens of times in their long histories. Here is a look at some of the recent cases:
— April 2007: Lt. Cmdr. Kevin Davis, 32, of the Blue Angels, died when his jet went down during the final minutes of a performance at the Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort in Beaufort, South Carolina The Pittsfield, Massachusetts., native was in his first year flying in formation with the team.
— August 2005: No one was hurt when two Thunderbird jets made contact while flying in formation, and a missile rail was dislodged. No one was injured in that accident at Chicago Air and Water Show, but the carbon fiber object fell into Lake Michigan, roughly 2,500 feet from where spectators had gathered to watch the show.
— September 2003: Captain Chris Stricklin safely ejected with only minor injuries when his Thunderbird jet crashed at an air show at Mountain Home Air Force Base in Idaho as about 85,000 spectators looked on.
— October 1999: Lt. Commander Kieron O’Connor, 35, and crewmate Lt. Kevin Colling, 32, were killed while practicing for air shows with five other Blue Angels jets at Moody Air Force Base in southern Georgia. There was no evidence of a mechanical problem on the F/A-18 Hornet. Investigators said O’Connor had a rib injury that might have given him trouble tensing his abdominal muscles to avoid blacking out during maneuvers that exert extreme gravitational forces on pilots.
— April 1999: Two Thunderbird F-16 jets bumped shortly after takeoff during a performance at Patrick Air Force Base, Florida. They were able to safely land without injury.
— July 1985: Navy Lt. Cmdr. Mike Gershon, 32, of Pensacola, Florida, died when two A-4 Skyhawk jets collided and plummeted to earth in a fiery crash witnessed by 22,000 spectators. Lt. Andy Caputi, 30, ejected from his plane and landed safely on the grounds of the Niagara Falls Air Force Base.
— January 1982: The “Diamond Crash” becomes the worst training crash in Thunderbird history. Maj. Norm Lowry, Capt. Willie Mays, Capt. Pete Peterson and Capt. Mark Melancon are killed while flying the famous diamond formation during training at Indian Springs, Nevada.
Businessman to challenge veteran South Florida congresswoman
MIAMI (AP) — Veteran GOP Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen is getting a well-financed Democratic challenger for her South Florida House seat.
Businessman Scott Fuhrman announced Friday he’s running for Florida’s 19th congressional district, outlining his plans in a two-minute campaign video . He talks about running his family’s juice bottling company, being a husband and father, and making “some bad decisions” as a younger man.
The 34-year-old says “I drove too fast. I raced cars, and I broke the law.” He adds “too many politicians hide behind the truth. I won’t be one of them.”
He acknowledged his campaign will be “an uphill battle” In an interview with the Miami Herald, which first reported his entry into the congressional contest. He said he’ll spend $250,000 of his own money to fund his campaign.
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Online: www.scottfuhrman.com
THINGS TO KNOW: California’s new rules for end-of-life drugs
SAN DIEGO (AP) — California’s new law allowing life-ending drugs for the terminally ill has the strictest requirements of any of the five states that permit such prescriptions.
Many physicians say they are nervous about prescribing lethal doses of drugs for the terminally ill. The law in the nation’s most populous state took decades to pass and goes into effect June 9. There are concerns it will lead to hasty decisions, misdiagnosis, and even waning support by insurers for palliative care, in which dying people can be sedated to relieve their suffering.
Requirements to obtain a prescription for lethal drugs under the new law include:
_____
WHO WILL BE ELIGIBLE TO GET SUCH PRESCRIPTIONS?
Patients must be at least 18 and given only six months or less to live. Two doctors must sign off on the diagnosis and deem the patient mentally competent.
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WHAT DOES THE PATIENT NEED TO DO TO REQUEST A PRESCRIPTION FOR LIFE-ENDING DRUGS?
The patient must be able to make an oral request for the prescription to their primary care doctor twice and 15 days apart. The person must also make a written request.
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CAN THE CARETAKER GIVE THE PERSON THE DRUGS?
No. Under the law, the person must be able to administer the drugs themselves without help.
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DOES INSURANCE COVER LIFE-ENDING DRUGS IN CALIFORNIA?
The law does not require private insurance companies to cover the cost. The drugs will be covered under California’s state Medicaid program, Medi-Cal. Federal programs such as Medicare and the Veterans Administration will not cover them, since the practice is not allowed under federal law.
___
HOW MUCH DOES IT COST?
A common drug used for such purposes, secobarbital, can run up to $5,000 for a lethal dose. It is known by the brand name as Seconal.
Ex-‘Glee’ star Mark Salling to surrender in child porn case
FILE - In this March 13, 2015 file photo, Mark Salling arrives at the 32nd Annual Paleyfest "Glee" held at The Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. Salling, an actor who starred on the musical dramedy Glee is scheduled to turn himself in to federal authorities Friday, June 3, 2016, in a child pornography case. Salling, who played bad-boy Noah "Puck" Puckerman on the series, is scheduled to be arraigned on two charges of receiving and possessing child pornography. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP, File) (Credit: Richard Shotwell/invision/ap)
LOS ANGELES (AP) — An actor who starred on the musical dramedy “Glee” is scheduled to turn himself in to federal authorities Friday in a child pornography case.
Mark Salling, who played bad-boy Noah “Puck” Puckerman on the series, is scheduled to be arraigned on two charges of receiving and possessing child pornography.
The 33-year-old actor was indicted by a grand jury last week.
In December, Los Angeles police and federal agents seized a laptop, hard drive and flash drive they say contained images and videos depicting child pornography.
He was charged with one count of using the Internet to obtain a pornographic still image and video of young girls and a second count of possessing two other porn videos that also featured underage girls.
Salling’s publicist did not return an email seeking comment.
Former Destiny Child’s member arrested outside Atlanta
TUCKER, Ga. (AP) — A former member of the R&B group Destiny’s Child has been arrested after being accused of drunkenly arguing with a man outside an Atlanta-area gym.
Citing a police report, news outlets say 35-year-old Farrah Franklin was arrested early Thursday in DeKalb County on public intoxication charges and marijuana possession charges.
Police say Franklin smelled of alcohol, had bloodshot eyes and slurred speech. Authorities say they discovered a green, leafy substance in Franklin’s purse they believe to be marijuana.
It is unclear whether Franklin has an attorney to comment on the charges.
Franklin and Michelle Williams joined Destiny’s Child to replace two original members in 2000. Franklin left the group months later and the remaining trio helped launch the solo careers of Williams, Kelly Rowland and Beyonce.
California doctors uneasy about prescribing lethal drugs
SAN DIEGO (AP) — Terry Petrovich asked her oncologist point blank: “Am I going to count on you to help me achieve a good death?”
To her relief, he told her he would have no problem prescribing a lethal dose of drugs under California’s new law allowing such prescriptions for the terminally ill.
But many in California’s medical community are grappling with the law that goes into effect June 9. Some physicians have told their patients they are not willing to play a role in intentionally ending a person’s life.
Catholic hospitals will not provide the prescriptions because it goes against the church’s stance on the issue, according to Alliance of Catholic Health Care, representing 48 facilities, 27 of which provide hospice services. The organization, though, cannot bar its affiliated physicians from talking about it, or referring patients to medical offices willing to prescribe such drugs.
How it plays out in trend-setting California, the country’s most populous state, could determine whether the practice spreads nationwide. Some see providing the choice to the dying as a logical evolution in a medical care system advanced in helping people live longer but limited in preventing slow, painful deaths.
Petrovich was diagnosed in 2012 with stage 4 non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma that’s spread to her bone marrow.
“I’m not suicidal by any means,” said Petrovich, wearing a “Stupid Cancer Get Busy Living” T-shirt. “I want to keep hiking keep loving my dog, just keep living until I can’t anymore — and then I want that option.”
She fought for passage of the law after identifying with 29-year-old California resident Brittany Maynard, who was dying from brain cancer and moved to Oregon in 2014, the first state to make it legal, so she could take the drugs to end her suffering.
California has more safeguards than the other four states — Oregon, Washington, Vermont and Montana — where it is allowed. Still there are concerns it will lead to hasty decisions, misdiagnosis, and waning support for palliative care, in which dying people can be sedated to relieve suffering.
“I think everyone has that personal, ethical dilemma because we’re not really taught in medical school to cause someone’s death, and yet we certainly think society is moving toward wanting the option,” said Dr. Daniel Mirda of the Association of Northern California Oncologists.
Mirda opposed the bill because he did not think it was a doctor’s place to weigh in, but now he plans to decide on a case by case basis.
“The majority of physicians, it seems, are neutral, nervous, not comfortable prescribing it, but are not going to stop someone from seeking out another physician for help to do this,” he said.
Jan Emerson-Shea of the California Hospital Association says a terminally ill person is more likely to be prescribed the medicine when they are at home or in a hospice setting and not in a hospital.
It is not known when the first prescription could be written. Patients must be given six months or less to live, make two verbal requests within 15 days of each other and submit a written request.
People with terminal illnesses, like Petrovich, are preparing for when that time may come.
After undergoing immunotherapy, Petrovich’s cancer appears stable and she is still working as the administrator of the Cabrillo National Monument in San Diego.
But she is cognizant that her cancer may become aggressive and the treatments ineffective. She does not want her daughter to see her suffer like her own mother who died from ovarian cancer.
“I just heard this heartache in her voice,” said Petrovich, recalling one of the last conversations with her 77-year-old mother, who was bedridden in diapers after two rounds of chemotherapy. “She said Terry, if I could get up out of this bed and find a gun, I would kill myself, and that just like totally — I mean I still gets goosebumps when I think of it — because it was just totally devastating for me that my mom could be in so much pain at the end stage of her disease, where she had done all the treatment that she could, there was no other option for her, but she was still completely aware of everything that was going on and there was nothing that she could do to get herself out of this pain.”
Petrovich’s ex-husband died from blood cancer and their daughter learned “what a bad death looks like” at the age of 18, Petrovich said.
After the law passed, Petrovich talked to her daughter about her wishes. On the refrigerator at her home in Julian, east of San Diego, is the form giving her 33-year-old daughter the power to make medical decisions when she is not physically capable of doing so.
“I don’t want to be conscious fully, my mind fully there, but lying in my bed unable to move, unable to get up and go to the bathroom, unable to pet my dog, unable to go outside,” said Petovich, who hikes daily with her dog, Piper.
She doesn’t know that she’ll ever take the drugs, but “I now have the reassurance that I don’t have to have a bad death. That’s really comforting.”
