A Gold Coast, QLD doctor is under investigation. An elderly woman coming to the end of her life required full ventilation. The woman was not ready to die, and asked for a few more days to spend time with her family and accept her fate. The woman was conscious but could not communicate verbally because of the ventilator and used a communications board. There was no evidence in the records the woman was not able to make decisions for herself.
Yet when her family left the doctor turned the ventilator to its lowest setting, effectively turning it off. There was evidence she was unable to breathe and became distressed. She lingered for several hours before dying. The nurse managing her care was extremely distressed.
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