Nil By Mouth in hospital

I see two problems which occur often in hospitals. You see a sign over your relative's bed which says Nil By Mouth. You think they are trying to kill your relative on the Liverpool pathway by denying food, water (which is painful and causes headaches and a swollen tongue and prevents you swallowing food and water and speaking). If the family are all overweight as is the patient and they equate feeding with loving they feel they are giving their sick relative comfort and love as well as sustaining food and health by giving food. If the hospital had understood and said they were feeding the patient nutrition through a tube in the arm, but the patient's throat is sore from an operation / thrush, whatever, that might be OK. Alternatively, to leave the patient in intensive care and unconscious so they do not eat until the throat has healed might be an alternative, but generally you want to get the patient up and about and breathing. The whole family needs a sensible diet and sympathetic talks in person and/or by phone before and after surgery and hospitalisation.