I know that our hospice here has changed mindsets some, but the rule used to be terminal illness with 6 months left to live, focus on palliative care and pain management, but no treatment. Dialysis is a life saving measure and their focus is on assisting with end of life.
That being said, I know Hospice of Metro Denver now accepts patients who have long term illnesses without an end date and they allow for sustaining measures in most cases. I think they focus on pain management and getting the patient comfortable without dictating personal choices. I believe this was all part of the healthcare initiative and Medicaid rules changing. I know when I did the volunteer work, their hands were tied by healthcare laws and they absolutely had to have families meet the criteria in order to get paid. (I stopped in 1998 when D16 was a baby, and the laws have changed a lot in that time.)
Maybe Florida hasn't expananded their healthcare platform on the legal side to allow for this to happen? Not sure. But there are typically a few hospice orgazinations around. We have a private one too, but another one was forced to close last summer for a variety of reasons - all of them financial.
I hope your dad can get some pain management, though. Please tell me the docs support that?
"There are only 2 ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle."
