So, I don't know how many of you actually know this, but my grandfather, my daddy's dad was murdered by a nurse. She calls it a mercy killing. And I guess Texas Monthly sees it that way as well. They have a story about her this month and the title is "Angel of Death". Well, lemme tell you. She was no Angel of anything. She was a murderer. Plain and simple. My grandpa had fallen on the ice and was in the hospital for his hip to the best of my recollection. My dad left the hospital, at which he worked, btw, one evening and grandpa was talking and very lucid. The next day he was dead. This nurse had decided I guess that he was in so much pain that she would just put him out of his misery. And she did the same for quite a few others as well. How nice of her, huh? She was such an angel to not want these people to be in such pain and misery. Man, I'm so glad that she saw it fit that my grandfather's pain was so great that his family could just go on better without him. Why would we want to have to take care of him and love him? Why would we want him to be around to see his grand children get married and his great grand children be born. No. He was in so much pain that there's no way he would have ever enjoyed it. And yet she lives to tell her side of the story. Wonder if she ever talks about the fear in the patients eyes when they suddenly wake up realizing that they can't breathe and that their life is being taken from them. Wonder if she ever thinks about the families, the hundreds of people who have to live every day with the memory of what she did to their loved one? Wonder how she can sleep at night knowing that she single handedly rocked one small town to it's knees with national news coverage? I wonder if she gave them one last chance to say goodbye. Would she have still decided their lives were not as valuable as her own?
Sorry for the heaviness of this post, but wow. Angel of Death.
***I stand corrected. The title of this article is Angel of Death, not Angel of Mercy as I had first posted. The editor of Texas Monthly Magazine let me know that. My apologies to anyone who I may have confused or misqoted or misrepresented.***
Tuesday, July 3, 2007
Angel of Death My Foot!
Posted by Jen at 7:40 AM
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2 comments:
Jen, I'm very sorry about your grandfather. The title of the story is not "Angel of Mercy." It's "Angel of Death."
All best,
Evan Smith
Editor, TEXAS MONTHLY
Whatever the title, no angel in my book. Those decisions are impossible even in the most tragic of circumstances. I wouldn't want to have to make them. Not sure anyone has the right to.
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