We are, unfortunately, familiar with the U.K.’s National Health Servie (NHS) and their “Liverpool Care Pathway” that involves intentionally starving/dehydrating patients, including babies, to death. Sadly, it seems starvation in the NHS is far more endemic than that: A man with Down’s syndrome died from starvation/neglect in a NHS hospital.
“His family – Ria, and brothers Peter and Gio, a respected documentary film maker – were told he needed surgery and as he had difficulty swallowing, with his neck fracture, he was made ‘nil by mouth’.
“Ria added: ‘I visited Joe in hospital and he wasn’t happy at all. He hated being in there. But I just thought it was a fall and that he’d soon be home again.
“…
“‘When I left, he held my hands and he wouldn’t let go. Looking back, it was as if he knew.’
“Two weeks on, doctors told Ria that Joe was dying.
“She said: ‘I held him in my arms and I said goodbye as he took his last breath. My heart was breaking. He had lost so much weight. He was a shadow of himself.’
“He died on March 20, 2016, while medics were still debating how best to feed him.”
But… it’s “free”, amirite?
