by Alliance VITA | April 1, 2020 | News, Coronavirus
Since the beginning of the Coronavirus pandemic, we are facing new challenges for caring for those who are sick, isolated or facing the end of their lives.
Needless to say, the Alliance VITA listening services have mobilized their resources for listening and helping isolated people and their relatives.
The brand new web space dedicated to COVID-19 on the SOS End-of-Life website presents several specific categories:
- isolation during confinement,
- difficulties in assisting people at the end of their life,
- and the problem associated with mourning rites and funerals.
A specific category for caregivers gives them an opportunity to take a step back and reflect, and it also enables them to interact with other caregivers.
The SOS End-of-Life service was created by Alliance VITA, following the heat wave in 2003 to listen to and inform people facing difficulties at the end-of-life and during the grieving process. Indeed, given the current situation, this work is invaluable.
SOS End-of-Life assists people facing the end of their life, their relatives, or even the caregivers who have questions about some professional practices, and who need answers on the ethics of care.
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SOS Fin de vie (SOS End-of-Life)
Tel : 01 42 71 32 94
ecoute@sosfindevie.org
www.sosfindevie.org
by Alliance VITA | March 27, 2020 | Coronavirus, News, Old age and Dependency
Following Italy, Spain is the second most-affected European country by the coronavirus, with over 56,000 reported cases and at least 4,000 deaths since mid-February (more than in China), and is now facing a serious crisis in its’ retirement homes.
Last Monday, the Spanish Defense Minister, Margarita Robles said that the army had discovered elderly people left to fend for themselves, as well as bodies of residents still in their beds, in retirement homes in Spain.
According to the protocol, if a coronavirus is suspected, a body cannot be moved until the doctors and the funeral home workers arrive, but these services are currently completely overwhelmed.
The Defense Minister declared: “We will be relentless and unyielding for the way people are treated in these homes.”
The Health Minister, Salvador Illa, also said: “Residences for the elderly are an absolute priority for the government; we have now mobilized all possible means to support and control these retirement homes.”
The elderly are the population most at risk of dying from coronavirus. In France, there is a serious concern for the approximately 850,000 people in retirement homes. The “SYNERPA” (National Union of Private Homes and Residences for the Elderly) has requested that an “EHPAD” emergency unit be established to handle critical situations.
![[Press Release] Coronavirus: Elderly at Greater Risk of Discrimination and Euthanasia](https://www.alliancevita.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Covid-19-1-1080x675.jpg)
by Alliance VITA | March 26, 2020 | Coronavirus, Death and grieving, End of life, Press Releases
Alliance VITA warns that serious ethical transgressions are looming over many elderly individuals during these unforeseen circumstances of contamination, confinement, lack of medical equipment and personnel, and diminishing capacity of hospital resuscitation units.
Alliance VITA, informed by its listeners of the SOS End of Life listening service, as well as by a large number of caregivers, members of its teams and its medical experts, alerts about this serious situation. The elderly, who were already facing loneliness, are now isolated and defenseless, in danger of having their dignity trampled upon and even threatened with losing their lives.
Due to insufficient experience and training of some doctors, multiple sedation protocols are hastily implemented, based solely on age, and neglecting any endeavors for treatment. This is equivalent to discrimination, a denial of appropriate healthcare which can end up in a form of euthanasia.
Tugdual Derville, Alliance VITA’s General Delegate, founder of the SOS End-of-Life and author of “The Battle of Euthanasia” (Salvator Editions) declares:
“We all realize that the pandemic is making even worse the already worrisome situation for many elderly people, and not merely those in nursing homes. Indeed, it is outrageous that their deaths are not even counted in the COVID-19 death statistics. Are seniors to be considered as sub-citizens, whose lives no longer count? This is suggested by some statements. The high number of deaths observed in many nursing homes is just as sad as for other population groups. Their caregivers lament that screening tests are being rationed (maximum 3 per establishment), they are denied access to hospitals and healthcare and in some cases to ventilators (with no remedial or prophylactic treatment proposed).
On the one hand, many caregivers in nursing homes are being heroic, such as those who have chosen to remain confined with the residents, or who compensate, by extending their hours, to comfort the distress of these isolated individuals. Nonetheless, we want to warn against the genuine temptation of euthanasia. It is especially during such difficult times, that ethics for medical care must be fully respected. ”
Alliance VITA requests for the public authorities to include the elderly in the COVID-19 death statistics, to screen all citizens regardless of age, and to repeat that all individuals, of all ages, have a right to healthcare treatment without being killed.
by Alliance VITA | March 25, 2020 | Coronavirus, Abortion, News
On March 19, during the Covid-19 Emergency Bill discussions in the French Senate, Senator Laurence Rossignol tabled an amendment to extend the statutory deadline for performing abortion by two weeks.
This proposal to increase the legal deadline for abortion from 12 to 14 weeks of pregnancy is nothing short of a legislative rider tagged onto the law for emergency health measures during the Coronavirus crisis. Following the negative reactions voiced by the Government and the Senate Law Commission, the amendment was rejected.
The amendment pretended to reinforce the recommendations sent, on March 17, by the National College of French Gynecologists and Obstetricians (“CNGOF”) to its members regarding abortions during the Covid-19 crisis. A close look at this document shows, on the contrary that the CNGOF’s concern about abortion’s delays regards the pressure to shorten the legal delay, and not an appeal to extend the legal timeframe to get an abortion.
In fact, the “CNGOF” recommends avoiding hospital care as much as possible and “encourages having abortions at home”. During this confinement period, it is especially disturbing to see this type of abortion method being recommended. Because it must be performed before 5 weeks of pregnancy it requires a quick decision. Furthermore, due the psychological and medical risks caused by abortions at home, women having these abortions need to be followed-up closely.
by Alliance VITA | March 23, 2020 | Coronavirus, News
In the midst of the global Coronavirus pandemic, a European clinical trial to evaluate four experimental treatments began on March 22, 2020.
This clinical trial entitled “Discovery” is being coordinated by French National Institute of Health and Medical Research (“Inserm”) as part of the Reacting consortium. The data from this trial will be included in another international clinical trial that will soon begin under the authority of the World Health Organization (WHO), called “Solidarity”.
The French part of this European trial will be directed in Lyon, by Florence Ader, an infectious disease specialist at the International Center for Research in Infectious Disease.
In France, at least 800 French patients suffering from severe forms of COVID-19 will be enrolled. Five French hospitals are taking part in this trial: Paris, Lille, Nantes, Strasbourg and Lyon. More hospitals will be included depending on the epidemiological situation, with a priority given to the hardest-hit hospitals. The clinical trial aims to recruit 3,200 European patients from Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Spain, and the United Kingdom.
The purpose is to assess the efficacy and safety of four experimental therapeutic protocols, which, in light of the latest scientific information, especially from China, might be effective against COVID. The World Health Organization (WHO) gave these drugs a priority status as experimental treatments to be examined and used in clinical trials.
Allocation of patients to the various treatment modalities will be randomized, i.e. by random draw, but patients and physicians will know which treatment is used (this is called an open trial).
Fifteen days after each patient begins treatment, the efficacy and safety will be evaluated.
Florence Ader explains that this is an “adaptive” trial, where changes can be made in real time. Thus, ineffective treatments can be dropped and replaced by others, which appear promising according to emerging scientific data.
The four initial treatments to be tested are:
- remdesivir,
- lopinavir combined with ritonavir,
- the latter, administered with or without, interferon beta,
- and hydroxychloroquine.
