26th May 2008

My dog is getting old and maybe one day when he gets so infirm with no quality of life I'll have to take him down to the Vet who will weigh up the humaneness of keeping him alive as opposed to an injection to allow him to sleep in comfort into eternity.

Elsie Crutchley aged 77 was dying of stomach cancer and rather than being a burden to her family chose to enter a rest home to spend her last months (no hospice or paliative care available in the area). During the last 2 weeks of her life when she was in dire pain and obviously terminal, the rest home called no medical doctor to examine her and advise on pain management. My dog would get better treatment from a vet than Mrs Crutchley got from Avonlea Resthome. They maintain they have done nothing wrong and have followed all procedures, obviously the procedures are inadequate.

On the night she died, the family were called to her bedside by Avonlea staff because she was not expected to last through the night. The family had to endure their mother pleading for help through intense pain. Where was the nurse or more importantly a doctor to alleviate the pain? Obviously not in the room where the family sat in vigil. Finally the son, Ian Crutchley increased the morphine attached to his mother through a drip and she drifted off to sleep never to awake.

The very efficient nurse called the police and the son was hauled off by the police to face a murder charge. The murder charge was thrown out of court, so the police pursued it by laying a charge of attempted murder. He was convicted this week in the Hamilton High Court of the charge.

What an Alice in Wonderland, politically correct world we live in where basic humanity is given only to pets and animals and we allow humans to suffer intolerably. For the Police to say they were only doing their job by laying fresh charges shows that we live in a society where man made rules are more important than common sense interpretation of basic humanitarian actions.

I would rather invite Ian Crutchley into my home than any Hamilton policeman or health bureacrat. He is the salt of the earth. He is what is rare in this world, one who cares for others without thinking of the consequences to himself. He deserves a Queens Birthday honour.

I hope some brave soul will do the same for me if I am ever writhing in pain on my death bed and put me out of my misery.

The Law is an ass.

TC