I was a Paramedic in central Georgia in 1982. When we transported a pt. we asked the wife to bring along all meds. I ran a call on a terminal cancer patient, and his wife handed me a one liter bottle of "Brompton's Cocktail." Looked like cough syrup. I read the label, it contained 5,000 mg of morphine sulphate.
What a massive load of morphine. For a normal person, if you took 100 mg of morphine, orally, it would probably kill you. I asked mom about the dosage, and she said "Dr. Jackson said to give George just one tablespoon at a time. He said that if I gave George 3 tablespoons at once, it might be all over."
The doctor was giving the housewife the prescription for physician assisted suicide, with sort of a "wink wink." Her husband was down to 125 pounds, and wearing a diaper. He wasn't going to live for another month, no matter what. If Mom had the brains, and the courage, she would give him the big dose of Brompton's Cocktail, and he would fall asleep, he would feel no pain, and in a half hour or so he would peacefully pass into the spirit world.
Over the years I had handed to me about 15 bottles of the Brompton's Cocktail, most of the moms either didn't get the picture, or were too chicken to use the stuff to end their husband's suffering.
In conservative central Georgia, 40 years ago, physician assisted suicide was a routine practice.
Work in Henry County? By chance?
