Uncle refusing medical treatment for pneumonia

debodun

debodun

SF VIP
Location
way upstate in New York, USA
My 76-year-old uncle was recently placed in an "assisted care" facility. Now he has double pneumonia and a high fever. He doesn't think he's sick and believes the doctors are wrong in the diagnosis. He stubbornly refuses to take any medication (and he's not a Seventh Day Adventist). The staff at the facility say if he refuses medical advice, they can't treat him since he is competent to make his own decisions. I wanted to know the point, if any, at which the patients rights can be superseded by medical ethics.
 

Sorry to hear that... just pointing out that Seventh Day Adventists are proponents of medical care and in fact own one of the largest hospital corporations in the United States. I believe you mean Christian Scientist. As for your Uncle.. he has the right to refuse anything he desires and cannot be forced. So long as he has not been found incompetent of making his own decisions by a psychiatrist and had a guardian appointed by the court the decision is his. You would have to have him evaluated. And take it to court.
 
Thanks for the correction on the Christian Scientist sect. He was brought up as a Methodist, but does have strong religious beliefs that aren't part of that faith (he won't eat pork or shellfish or take ANY medicine).
 

He should see a doctor because the need for antibiotics. I don't agree that we have the right to force a person into the medical system.
 
Will he take alternative treatment like colloidal silver and different herbs which have antibiotic capability. There is lots you can put into his diet that have antibiotic capability.
 
Sounds like your uncle is in the same church I was in for 35 years. I left in 1995. Anyway, there are herbs and things he could take but the medical facility he's in probably wouldn't allow it. Everyone is on their own life path so I'd just let him do what he wants since he apparently doesn't have a legal guardian. I know it can be really frustrating though.
 
debodun said:
My 76-year-old uncle was recently placed in an "assisted care" facility. Now he has double pneumonia and a high fever. He doesn't think he's sick and believes the doctors are wrong in the diagnosis. He stubbornly refuses to take any medication (and he's not a Seventh Day Adventist). The staff at the facility say if he refuses medical advice, they can't treat him since he is competent to make his own decisions. I wanted to know the point, if any, at which the patients rights can be superseded by medical ethics.
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SDA's don't refuse medical treatment debodun although you're right they won't eat shellfish or pork and most are vegetarian. In fact they have one of the finest teaching hospitals in the States I believe. Loma Linda University Hospital. That's where they tried one of the first heart transplants years ago I think. Was it a baboon heart to a baby? Something like that. It's the Jehovah's Witnesses I believe (maybe there are others) who refuse blood transfusions and QS says Christian Scientists refuse medical treatment but I don't know anything about them.
 
Maybe your uncle has the same attitude as that guy in the other thread about dying when you're 75? Maybe he's feeling like he's had his fill of this life and it's just downhill from where he's at?
 
Falcon said:
Christian Scientists won't take meds, but they'll wear prescription eyeglasses. What hypocrites !
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Admittedly I know very little about CS, but I can understand not taking prescription medication (which is ingested into the body and bloodstream) yet wearing prescription eyeglasses (or shoe inserts, etc.) which are not.
 

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