Sweden has been accused of euthanising older COVID-19 patients with morphine cocktails instead of treating them with potentially life-saving treatment.
A professor of geriatrics at Umea University, Yngve Gustafson, 71, is quoted in Swedish daily ‘Dagens Nyheter’ claiming that many older people in Sweden are no longer being treated for COVID-19.
Instead, they allegedly receive palliative care because they are classified as being no longer curable.
It is also said that many coronavirus patients, as well as older people with pneumonia, are routinely given a morphine cocktail in nursing homes that slowly inhibits their ability to breathe.
For Gustafson: “This is active euthanasia, if not worse.”
The doctor emphasises that the percentage of elderly people who are on ventilators in the intensive care unit is therefore lower, despite older people being the most affected by the coronavirus.
He said: “It shows that we have decided to give up on the elderly who would have a chance of surviving.”
His claims have been backed up by a doctor from Stockholm, who wished to remain anonymous and who told the newspaper ‘Dagens Nyheter’ that the fatal cocktail contains a sedative and a painkiller, both of which are given in high doses.
Typically, such mixtures are given to people with end-stage cancer who then slowly fall asleep.
However, this reportedly significantly accelerates the death of coronavirus patients.
And relatives reportedly often know nothing about it because visits are prohibited.
The anonymous expert is quoted in the Swedish daily as saying: “I think it is illegal and some of these patients could survive.”
An example of this is 81-year-old Jan Andersson, who was infected with the coronavirus in a nursing home in Marsta near Stockholm at the end of March.
According to his son, Thomas Andersson, a doctor on the phone ordered a nurse to give Jan Andersson morphine. All of this happened without the patient’s consent and without informing his family, according to reports.
When Thomas Andersson got wind of it at the beginning of April, he immediately intervened and asked the medical staff to give his father medicines to make him well, instead of the opiate.
Jan Andersson soon recovered and was later released home.
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Story By: Joseph Golder, Sub-Editor: Michael Leidig, Agency: Central European News
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