The Killing of Mikey

[Chanlo23]

Doctors hold life and death in their hands. They always have. They are trusted to make life/death decisions in a humanitarian way in the best interests of the patient. How many of us ever dreamt of being doctors and healers?

My sister’s elderly general practice doctor told her that when he was started out, a doctor’s mission was to do no harm, to get folks better, and to never see them again, but nowadays, the goal is long-term treatment or death. Free up the hospitable beds, stop the drain on resources, and fill the organ banks. The very young, the very old, and the mentally ill are being euthanized around the world.

These patients are being harvested for organs. Particularly at risk are those in good health with suspected brain injuries, where drugs are used to induce comas. Patients are not allowed to come ‘out of it’ fully before the families are advised that there is no hope. They are told that their loved one may bring life and good health to as many as 8 other people, and that such is a wondrous gift their loved one would willingly make. And, many have.

In Holland, for example, doctor-induced deaths are greater than cancer deaths:
• http://www.lifesitenews.com/blog/euthanasia-is-out-of-control-in-the-netherlands-new-dutch-statistics. http://www.presseurop.eu/en/content/news-brief/3779801-doctors-euthanasia-dementia-patients-should-be-restricted
• http://www.lifenews.com/2012/07/04/thousands-in-netherlands-die-without-consent-since-euthanasia-ok/
• http://www.christianpost.com/news/man-set-to-be-euthanized-regains-consciousness-28210/
• http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-09/uom-cro091713.php
• http://www.rnw.nl/english/article/are-coma-patients-written-too-easily


All over the world, a distinction is made between people who have lost consciousness following an accident or a blow to the head and those who suffered a lack of oxygen. In the case of oxygen deprivation, they have to have displayed a return to consciousness within three months. They must exhibit some reaction to their environment. For people with other brain injuries, this limit is set at one year.

In Holland, Doctors give such patients as little as 18 days from the date of injury to the date of termination, regardless of the length of time kept in the coma. They have 18 days to score ‘high’ on brain function tests and wake up to normal functioning -- even after heavy, deep sedation to induce coma.

Do you want to live or play in Holland? Perhaps you should be aware that a cut or a fall may get you a visit to ER where an otherwise healthy person would be a likely candidate for their organ harvesting program!

[Bob]

Hi Chanlo - ya, I agree. I am aware of at least 3 doctor induced murders.

ED: I added some links and quotes:

ref: http://www.health-care-reform.net/causedeath.htm
"This Journal of the American Medical Association article illuminates the failure of the U.S. medical system in providing decent medical care for Americans." the statistics are for US issues..

• 12,000 deaths per year due to unnecessary surgery

• 7000 deaths per year due to medication errors in hospitals - this happens worldwide
(Specifically ZITHROMAX is a MAJOR cause of heart atrial Fib in patients causing needless deaths)

• 20,000 deaths per year due to other errors in hospitals - this happens worldwide

• 80,000 deaths per year due to infections in hospitals - this happens worldwide

• 106,000 deaths per year due to negative effects of drugs - this happens worldwide

Non-voluntary euthanasia (sometimes known as mercy killing) is euthanasia conducted where the explicit consent of the individual concerned is unavailable, such as when the person is in a persistent vegetative state. It contrasts with involuntary euthanasia, where euthanasia is performed against the will of the patient. The Netherlands practices non-voluntary euthanasia where a doctor by their choice can determine if a person will live or die. Who gave doctors the right to play GOD?

If a next of kin believes that a person MAY recover, but the doctor says no precedent, the doctor rules. If a person has drugged themselves "legally" silly by an over dose how about Heroin available in the Netherlands for instance, in the dens? and they "appear" to be vegetative, but just experiencing a bad trip from their experience maybe their tolerance is better.. if one finds oneself in STATE control by a State Doctor, they may just say well, no good brain signs, better pull the plug and not cost the State anything - yup lot of freedom there.. (not)

The killing of newborns is sanctioned in the Netherlands - If this act is considered non-voluntary euthanasia it is because the patients were newborns and they could not speak for themselves. The PRECEDENT is the patient cannot speak for themselves, which could be due to viral menningitus, or an other brain injury or nervous system injury which quite possibly could heal if given enough time - BUT the doctors and HOSPITALS are motivated by amount of bodies circulated through the system. A person who requires CARE is pushed aside for the statistics.

There are numerous cases, in Holland, that despite the free decisions of patients, in about 1000 (as in Fleming's report) of the cases, doctors prescribed drugs with the explicit goal of shortening the patient's life without the explicit request of the patient.

That is not free will to choose when some doctor can make it for you.

ref: Fleming, John (June 1992). "Euthanasia, The Netherlands, and Slippery Slopes". Bioethics Notes Research Occasional Paper -

http://cbhd.org/content/groningen-protocol-making-infanticide-legal-does-not-make-it-moral - the killing of babies does not make it moral

Read this Forum thread too while at it:
http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?64648-people-are-dying-because-of-the-attitude-of-the-medical-profession&p=747163&viewfull=1#post747163

I find this particularly revealing in Chanlo23's first reference, this is a copy quote from that reference:


The rate of deep-continuous sedation has more than doubled in the Netherlands since 2001 and has risen by 50% since 2005.

There is a growing concern about the abuse of the terminal sedation guidelines in the Netherlands. How often are deaths by deep-continuous sedation actually euthanasia?

Combined with the growth in the use of terminal sedation for people who are not otherwise dying (slow euthanasia) and the number of unreported euthanasia deaths, one must conclude that there are abuses occurring in the Netherlands.

In ENGLISH that means doctors are mis-using deep sedation methods, making those methods terminal. AS the patient now cannot speak for themselves, they then are LEGALLY under the care of the physician who then legally can say, well, let's just pull the plug. I stated, I have seen 3 times physician induced MURDER.

In the third link Chanlo23 cites (reading these articles IS very informative, and I thank Chanlo for presenting the statistics for all to see for themselves)..


Ottawa, Canada | LifeNews.com by Steven Ertelt (Canadian writer)
In 1990, 130,000 people died in the Netherlands: 2,300 people asked doctors to kill them; 400 asked doctors to provide them with the means to kill themselves; 8,100 died when doctors deliberately gave them an overdose of pain medication to kill them (for which 4,941 patients didn’t consent);

1,040 people died when doctors euthanized them without their knowledge or consent (72 per cent of those never having given any indication they would want their lives terminated).

That’s breathtaking in more than one way.

It’s not so much that nine per cent died at the hands of doctors, which is alarming in and of itself.

What should raise our cries of outrage is that 4,941 people (four per cent) did not give their consent to being killed.

A doctor who operates on someone without their consent can be successfully sued and made to pay huge dollars for having done so. The same should apply for killing a person without their consent.


>>> I AM OUTRAGED <<< and as I believe would any sensible person who cares about helping not harming either oneself or another.
That precedent to harm, to kill, I find to be abhorrent.

[778 neighbour of some guy]

In Holland, Doctors give such patients as little as 18 days from the date of injury to the date of termination, regardless of the length of time kept in the coma. They have 18 days to score ‘high’ on brain function tests and wake up to normal functioning -- even after heavy, deep sedation to induce coma.

Do you want to live or play in Holland? Perhaps you should be aware that a cut or a fall may get you a visit to ER where an otherwise healthy person would be a likely candidate for their organ harvesting program!

Bullsh!ts, that was the most biased jesusfreakish crap I have read in a long long time, finally some American pulls his head out of his @ss to take a peek over his own border and that is what you come up with, come on, you can do better than that, organ harvesting and babykilling eh, plenty of things wrong here but not in the way you think, for your information a fun fact about Holland, did you know that we prefer our kids to grow up as proud gays and we let our kids smoke weed from the tender age of one year, we sh!t tulips, piss fairydust and sail across the world in wooden shoes? People having more choices and options must scare the piss out of you I think, now give us our money back you creditcard using over consuming, poor levy building, war mongering, Africa and Asia sterilizing and vaccinating, natural resource wasting, Monsanto facilitating, native American blowerupper, nuke throwing heehaw gung ho nutjobs, stop giving birth to kids you send of to wars you cant afford and shouldn't wage in the first place before you complain about anyone else please ( pro life eh), get your health care and pharma industries in order, stop electing pre paid corporate hired cornholios for presidents, and make an effort to speak Dutch once in a while will you, haven't you noticed we speak English to you, how about returning the favor for once, just for the hell of it.

Killing the elderly, come on, you don't have a clue what you are talking about, you could only wish to be as lucky as we are here, having the option to die with some dignity at the moment of our own choice instead of being kept alive to drain our last dime out of us is great, btw, doctors here may not be perfect but they have the option to refuse to euthanize someone, some of them have for real an actual conscience, just like yours I assume, you cant complain about us when the US buries about 700.000 people a year due to medical "errors".

And get a grip on your budget for god sakes, if you don't the whole world gets to broke and we have no other option left besides euthanizing our elderly because you stole the money we could otherwise invest in better healthcare here.

So please, take a real hard and close look at yourself before you start pointing out what's wrong with the rest of the world.

You actually managed to piss me off;)

Excellent:cool:

[Snowflower]

Wow. Most creative rant I've ever heard. And read aloud to hubby with appropriate speed and breathlessness.
(thanks. Enjoyed it.)

[Carmen]

Me too Snowflower, I read it out to my daughter. A very eloquent rant. Hilarious! I'm inclined to get rather pissed off when New Zealand is spoken about in derogatory terms. A country as well as a person has to be pretty clean before they can sling **** at others. What was it that Jesus said "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone".

I do think that a few years back people and babies were allowed to die when quality of life would be severely handicapped by keeping them alive. Now that we have the technology life can be prolonged, but at what standard or quality. A hellava descision to make any any case! It has to be the persons choice just as abortion should be the mothers choice, but we wont get into that.

[mosquito]

Well said 778 !!!!!

Just to add a little .....

My understanding is that in the Netherlands a person has the right to end their life with dignity, rather than be kept alive as a guinea-pig for the drug companies. I saw a very moving documentary about it over 10 years ago, and I thought then, and still do, that it was a wonderful thing, though by no means easy to implement.

My understanding ALSO is that in the good ol' US of A medical incompetence is the number 1 killer.

[Snowflower]

Allopathic doctors (the ones that put MD after their name) are the best, hands down, for trauma care. But they suck for degenerative disease. You are absolutely correct. More people die from doctor-caused reason than anything else. When doctors go on strike, the death rate plummets! That should be enough warning right there. I don't do doctors (with one exception. I know when my right kidney gets bad enough that I'll die if I don't do antibiotics, so I go to the emergency room and get a prescription - for MY choice of drug.)

[Bob]

Every recognized religion says don't kill the other, not with mercy killing, not with doctor sponsored make it easy for everyone, not just kill your elderly mother or father, nor that baby that can't talk for itself that may have ADHD..

"The religions (should say Spirituality) of the world are becoming increasingly aware that what unites them in ethics is greater than what divides them in theology." (from the article below)

The point of this discussion as I see it, it is about ETHICS and the lack of it, typified by the killing of those who can't defend themselves or who are overwhelmed by those who have no ethics, who have no caring of others, but spout degrees, or "authority", or whatever to overwhelm another who definitely may be weaker or compromised. The Hyenas go for the kill after they have tried to wear down, either drug, or make unconscious their quarry. That's the reality.

It's all a test and everyone presents who and what they are, to others, and themselves, it's only a matter of waking up out of the stupor, out of the ego and trying help instead of taking.

Here is an article that is a good read, I suggest one take the time to read it.

As there has be quite a discussion about Buddhism in the Forum I will cite this:
Buddhism's approach to medical ethics is informed by its belief in the sanctity of life. Don't do the killing, not for yourself, not for your "friend", not for your family member. Don't.


http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1376772/pdf/jmedeth00298-0011.pdf

[Chanlo23]

I began this thread, speaking in sweeping generalities and gave some web links about euthanasia with regard to brain injuries so that I could then speak of WHY I posted this thread using a few real-life examples of doctor murder from my own experience.

This thread is not about politics or medical incompetence in any country, about religious or secular thoughts concerning euthanasia and/or doctor-assisted suicide, or about the demonization of medical doctors.

It IS about doctor murder under the guise of euthanasia for reasons disconnected from the health and the well-being of a patient, especially in cases involving babies, the elderly, and brain-injured adults. I will give examples separately.

I have seen/heard of instances where such was based on insurance fraud, dwindling medical and financial resources, and medical testing of drugs and procedures on a captive patient pool. It is about doctors lying to patients and caregivers, who do not KNOW what is happening to them, do not know the research being done, are not prepared for any medical problem, and blindly trust that a single doctor must know, must be competent, and must be trustworthy just because they are a doctor. This is particularly prevalent among older people who have not had any experience with medical treatment of anything beyond general practice.

If you or a loved one need to see a doctor, or go to a hospital, then you need to do your research about the doctor(s), their expertise, the hospital, its policies, and the conditions involved in whatever country you are in. You need to get a second opinion or a third about any treatment or procedure you are advised to obtain. You need to consider your options and then be allowed to make your choice without pressure.

I began this thread with an example from Holland, using weblinks that speak of the euthanasia policy there, with regard to BRAIN INJURIES, because the humane set of laws of that country were used to kill a dear friend of mine this week.

That very desire to insure the quality of human life was used to kill a fine human being in the name of expediency. My friend Mikey was not elderly. He was a 39 year old man of heart and humanity, sound of mind, body and spirit, who fell off a ladder. Some of the cervical vertebra were broken, but the spinal cord did not appear to be compromised.

The doctors medically induced a coma to keep him stable while they determined if there was bleeding or swelling in the brain, and/or a severed spinal cord. (This is standard practice in many countries, even the U.S.) The drugs were stopped after two weeks when swelling went down and there was no evidence of bleeding or spinal cord injury. Three days later, the DOCTORS wanted to pull plug because he had not woken up on his own and because initial tests taken immediately following the drug stoppage were negative.

The parents, whom I KNOW, were told that because 18 days had passed from the date of his injury, and he had not awakened on his own in that time, that it was clear that he would be a vegetable or worse. It did not matter that 15 of those days were in a drug-induced coma that he could not have awakened from. These gentle, practical folks were urged to pull the plug, to donate his organs due to a severe shortage of donors, to limit their financial burden, and to end possible future suffering by him and themselves due to prolonging the inevitable. THIS is what they were told and told to me. This is what they believed without question.

It is known that drugs used to induce deep sedation and coma, whether heavy dosages of barbiturates or propofol (commonly used and MIS-used in many ICUs), WILL cause negative brain function testing. It is known that such drugs take 3-4 weeks at the minimum to clear from the body. Myself and one other close friend urged the family to give Mikey just two weeks without those drugs to be retested before making their decision.

Studies released only this past September state it can take months for these drugs to leave the body, for the body to test 'true' and for the person to wake up normally. There is a medical standard set to allow such patients up to one year to recover on their own. My friend and I asked for two weeks, but were told that the DOCTORS knew best. They would not question, would not read the studies, and would not ask for a second opinion, but totally believed in the specific M.D that told them the only proof needed was 1) the failure to wake up in an 18 day window even under deep sedation and 2) the results of brain function tests known to fail in the presence of such drugs. They were not shown any MRI or CATscan imaging or any other proof that their worst case scenario was realistic.

I would not want, and my friend Mikey would not have wanted, to live in pain or as a vegetable. Mikey would not have objected to his organs being used to help others. I believe Mikey and his family deserved to know that the situation was truly hopeless before the decision was made to give up hope. Neither he nor his family were given that chance.

The doctors may have called this event euthanasia, but I say my friend Mikey was murdered, and that his family was not ever truly informed about the real situation. How could they possibly make an informed choice?

[Bob]

http://chanlo.com/images/friends-1.jpg

We miss you Mike - God's speed brother.

[Crazy Louie]

doctors and being in a hospital blow - its the rawhide mentally - your not you to them - your just another version of the version of the version that came before you - if they smile alot I feel sorry for you if they are your doctor. because all they are thinking is keep them doggies moving. granted they work very hard to get through med school but after that - it's pretty easy street as long as they can tune you out as a person.

dantes quote goes here - for those that have to enter a hospital -- and of course there are great excellent doctors -- but so few. and please remember Dr. House was fiction. if you accept that the medical field is no mecca and its just more world torture you will be better mentally prepared if you find yourself in a hospital. your best bet is to just die out right.

[Limor Wolf]

Chanlo23, thank you for this report. I can unforunetly confirm with my mother passing away 10 months ago. Without getting into the anomalies surrounding this case, my mother has collapsed with Cerebral hemorrhage while being hospitalized for non-invasive treatment of heart and foot, she suddenly collapsed at around 1300 at noon, was found at around 1400 and was not treated normally at all as is expected - they never took her into surgery as required in this type of situation, but left her on the bed under 'care', not trying to save her life, they never called or tried to contact any of us. We found out when we came to be with her during the evening time at around 1900 in the evening, their excuse for not calling us was that it 'fell between the cracks'.


During the three days of her being in a brain death state, we've been asked to donate her organs. She was 71. They very nicely gathered us in a fancy meeting room and explained to us the great contribution that it will make. Knowing my mother's approach to that (she feared), I refused decisively on her behalf and that was that. Another team of doctors came from another hospital to verify the medical diagnose according to protocol she was then disconnected from the machine.

My brothers do intened to file law suit against the hospital for neglect and lack of treatment as well as for not notifying us on what has happened. When we walked to this specific hospital ward the first day of hospitalization, my mother standing on both her two feet and smiling said to the nurses half laughingly, half seriously - "I heard that whoever comes in here never gets out", she was right about that and it is a well known sad truth that it happens to many. Something is not ticking right. Do try not to get into hospital if your health is important to you.

I am very sorry to hear about Mikey

[Bob]

Thank you Limor, my heart goes to you and family - my Mom was basically killed the same way in March this year, and I documented things like the hospital not monitoring her, abandoning her, went to all the authorities and was laughed at for being concerned that she was being abused.

To see this happen with my dear friend Mike just yesterday does me no good in having faith that these people who are "legally" given the authority to care for us, to care for our loved ones will do anything else but do harm and try to get away with it, and of course try to harvest our loved one.

I know that Chanlo has links that discuss the current "shortage" of organs that exists - maybe we need to talk about that... I know from having spent the week trying for my Mom to get care in supposedly a respected highly praised hospital, what was done, including the wrong drugs being given to hasten her death and make her miserable, literally torturing her.

She went in with a head cold and went out on a slab.

[Limor Wolf]

Very sorry to hear about your two losses, Bobd. Things are certainly fishy beyond what we dare to imagine. The propagation of these cases and the unreasonable circumstances may be partly due to the wear of of the medical staff, no doubt, but strangley, there seem to be some sort of a 'helping hand' behind the scenes where patients best interest is not exactly the first priority to say it lightly.

The Health system led by World Health Organisation (can argue about the middle name) is acting very similar to the other systems and need (and will) to collapse.

Be well

[Chanlo23]

Thank you Limor and BobD for sharing your experience. Both of these are examples of the way our older family members are being treated even when they HAVE caregivers who know to ask questions, dare to be FULLY informed, and even explicitly state what their wishes and those of their loved ones ARE. It is the DOCTORS who made these choices, not the families and not the patient.

Limor, the situation you describe with the doctors gathering the family together and ever so sweetly describing the wonderful contribution only you and your loved one can make is exactly what was reported by Mikey's family. The difference is that they said yes because they believed in the authority of the m.d. and a prognosis based on partial facts. I am so sorry to hear of your loss. Best of luck with the lawsuit too!

[Carmen]

Having read the rest of the posts I now understand and I am disturbed by this attitude of the hospitals. Many people have been in comas for longer than eighteen days and have fully recovered! Some of these policies, as described, amount to murder!!

[Hervé]

Even Dr. Blaylock couldn't save his brother from the killing machine:


How Modern Medicine Killed My Brother (http://www.wnho.net/medicine_killed_brother.htm)

[Bob]

Even Dr. Blaylock couldn't save his brother from the killing machine:


How Modern Medicine Killed My Brother (http://www.wnho.net/medicine_killed_brother.htm)

Thank you very much for that LINK above, "How Modern Medicine Killed My Brother"

It brought back the horror of trying to deal with the semi-trained "experts" last March.

[mosquito]

Thank you for clarifying Chanlo. I feel for all of you who've had this awful experience.

What struck me about the documentary from the NL I saw in 1995 (I think) was that it was a lawyer who made the final decision regarding euthanasia, rather than a doctor. My feelings at the time were that this would never work in Britain because of the arrogance of the medical profession. The patronizing condescension that these people show toward the families of the patients is beyond words.

May I suggest that at the root of this (among other things) is the corporatisation of health care. Patients are no longer "patients", they're "service users", families and the community are "stake holders" and, of course, hospitals are now run by teams of useless managers and accountants.

Paradigm shift required - pleeeeease.

[camper]

Talk about pissed off, isn't anybody going to say that was absolutely uncalled for!

[Belle]

I'm so sorry for your loss, chanlo23. It is especially difficult when it seems so totally unnecessary...the grieving process requires rationalizing the hows and whys of the situation until acceptance of the loss has been reached.

I now understand that this thread is a part of that rationalizing process and a hope that no one has to go through this kind of pain.


Responding to camper...had chanlo23 begun this thread with post #9, there would have been no mistaking her intent nor offense taken.

What happened to her friend Mikey can and does happen by doctor recommendation in hospitals in every country of the world. By singling out Holland in the first post without explanation as to why, it was easy to infer the discussion was about one particular countrys medical policies...to which 778 responded.

Let's face it, there is more than a little American bias here at PA, and it is not unknown for Americans to take 'pot shots' at other countries or to ignore events that occur elsewhere...as was the case with the suspicious train mishap in Canada, for example.

I understand why 778 was 'pissed off'...and I understand chanlo's attempt at rationalizing how such a thing could happen to her friend.

Misunderstandings occur, sh1t happens...especially when we only have the written word.

A little more patience and sensitivity on all our parts when posting/reading a thread would go a long way, methinks.

[kirolak]

I would not prescribe what others should believe, nor take issue with their point of view based on their personal experience, but personally, I would prefer to be in the Netherlands if I were seriously ill. I have no desire to live in the face of unbearable pain; no desire to cost my family money we don't have; and I am convinced to my own satisfaction that dying is not a terrible thing. . . especially if it is done consciously and with the good of other beings in mind.

[Chanlo23]

Thank you all for your comments. I have learned a great deal from them. I truly sympathize for all of you who have had similar experiences, and I pray that those of you who have not, do not have them.

I hope that you all will be vigilant should you, or someone you care about, undergo deep sedation and/or induced coma following an accident (regardless of the country where it occurs).

The key points I was trying to make in this thread were:

Deep sedation drugs that are used to induce coma take 4-6 weeks to leave the blood stream.
Almost every civilized country gives a 3 month minimum window to head injury patients who have had coma induced to wake up.
Almost every civilized country will wait 2-3 weeks after the patient is taken OFF deep sedation drugs to test for brain function, because prior to that, the results will be false.
Make your choices in advance in writing, and give them to your family so that they know AND can show those to doctors who may be trying to 'persuade' them to give up before it is necessary.
In a life/death situation, get a second opinion.
Since some folks seem to have difficulty reading the entire posts, I will repeat:
NONE of the conditions that most people face in a medical emergency, where a decision to terminate is made, were present here with Mikey.

The facts given to me by the FAMILY were: Mikey was NOT in pain, his family would not have been 'out' any money, and his family was blatantly discouraged from getting 'all the facts' while being seductively wooed to pull the plug. (The family WAS given numerous loving sessions with several different organ donor groups. )

Mikey's family was specifically told he was NOT in pain, that there was no inter-cranial bleeding, and that there was no swelling. They were also told that the spinal cord was not compromised or damaged. They were not told the amount of time it takes for the sedation drugs to wash out of the system, nor were they were told that waiting even 2 weeks would have radically altered the brain function tests. Mikey was NOT given an MRI/CATScan that would have shown dead brain matter.

Mikey was only given THREE days to regain consciousness after having been drugged to the gills with deep sedation drugs that rendered him unconscious for over two weeks. The amount of time it takes for deep sedation drugs to wash out of the system IS longer than 3 days. (They should have waited 2-3 weeks for the sedation to clear and the brain to reset.)

Where you choose to live and how you choose to live/die are your own choices to make. I would hope that you each get to make them for yourselves.

When a doctor is left to be the decision maker, and you have little or no say in the matter, you are at risk. There is a tendency for doctors to NOT look for the patient's best interest to help them to recover. There is a tendency to push for early termination, to "save money, particularly for the hospital/doctor" and then harvest organs.

Knowing Mikey, I know Mikey wanted to survive, not to be abandoned this way. Mikey was not given his choices, nor was he able to have his free will honored.

[Debra]

Thank you! To all posters. I have learned a great deal.
My sincere condolences to each of you who have shared personal stories about loved ones.

xox