When Do We Let Go and Let God
Barbara Huttman's " Crime of Compassion", is a very admirable story. Huttman begins the essay with the dramatic scene of her as a guest on the Phil Donahue show. The illustration of the "fatted calf and the audience a two hundred-strong flock of vultures hungering to pick up the bones"(555) brought graphic detail on how the public views the controversial decision she made as a nurse and friend. Not pushing the code blue button for the fifty-second time that month, allowing her patient to end his constant pain and permitting nature to take its course, was the only so called crime Huttman committed. If the television show had allowed time for the full story the audience and everyone watching would have come to realize she did the only thing spiritually and emotionally she could. This becomes completely clear as she tells the devastating story of this dynamic, muscular police officer and his family discovering he had lung cancer. The narrative of the six months following the patient's discovery of his lung cancer is a very gripping description. The way she introduces you to the patient, Mac and his wife Maura pulls the reader in emotionally. With these emotions raised, Huttman explains her daily r
The essay also describes the horrible affect the persistent emotional pain of Maura and their three children were going through watching the Code Blue team resuscitate him over and over again on a daily bases. Not only Mac, but his family too, was begging not to put him through any more scientific life sustaining torment. The legal term placed on such action of not calling Code Blue when the medical records state nurses must is "Passive Euthanasia". The definition given for Passive Euthanasia by the Netherlands State Commission on Euthanasia is: Hasting the death of a person by withdrawing some form of support and letting nature take its course. Huttman speaks of the only legal alternative is if Mac's doctor was to place a "No Code Order" on his medical file. This would allow the nurses not to call a Code Blue the next time his body shut down. Since Mac's doctor did not believe in the "No Code Order", but in sustaining life as long as possible, this made it illegal to not push the code button every time, even though they had already resuscitated him fifty-two times that month. Forcing the reader to visualize and almost feel the pain of this skeleton man with his bed soars, bone-on-bone pain and his now uncontrollable bowels and b
Some common words found in the essay are:
Phil Donahue, Code Blue, Euthanasia Hasting, Mac Forcing, Crime Compassion, code blue, nature course, Passive Euthanasia, fifty-two times month, letting nature course, passive euthanasia, lung cancer, feel pain, letting nature, huttman speaks, code button, mac's doctor, fifty-two times,
Approximate Word count = 838
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)
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