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How Doctors Die

  • 08-12-2011 11:45pm
    #1
    El_Dangeroso
    Users Awaiting Email Confirmation Posts: 5,620 ✭✭✭


    Dramatic thread title but really interesting article on end-of-life care:

    http://zocalopublicsquare.org/thepublicsquare/2011/11/30/how-doctors-die/read/nexus/
    Of course, doctors don’t want to die; they want to live. But they know enough about modern medicine to know its limits. And they know enough about death to know what all people fear most: dying in pain, and dying alone. They’ve talked about this with their families. They want to be sure, when the time comes, that no heroic measures will happen—that they will never experience, during their last moments on earth, someone breaking their ribs in an attempt to resuscitate them with CPR (that’s what happens if CPR is done right).

    I know this sounds really callous, but considering the budget constraints and the fact that the majority of a hospital costs are accrued in the last year of someone's life, should this be something that is examined in more detail from both a health economics and quality of life point of view?


Comments

  • #2
    Traumadoc
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,523 ✭✭✭Traumadoc


    Very emotive issue, take for example PEG feeding.

    Does it prolong life. .......yes.
    Does it prolong suffering. .........Possibly
    Does it prevent suffering. .........Possibly

    Does it increase costs ............yes


  • #3
    El_Dangeroso
    Users Awaiting Email Confirmation Posts: 5,620 ✭✭✭El_Dangeroso


    I'm guessing from your username that you'd know more than most on this subject.

    What would be your own preference? Would you wear a no code bracelet like the doctors in the article.

    I'd obviously like to like as long as possible. But I'd like the inevitable decline to be as quick and steep as possible. I had one grandparent who lingered on for ages and another who died quickly from a massive stroke.

    Everyone was grateful at the funeral that she was living independently not a month before her death. Can't stand the thought of being highly dependant myself.


  • #4
    opinion guy
    Closed Accounts Posts: 11,001 ✭✭✭✭opinion guy


    That article is very one sided - no doubt there are plenty of doctors out there who would embrace all that medicine has to offer.


  • #5
    Traumadoc
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,523 ✭✭✭Traumadoc


    El_Dangeroso wrote: »
    I'm guessing from your username that you'd know more than most on this subject.

    What would be your own preference? Would you wear a no code bracelet like the doctors in the article.

    I'd obviously like to like as long as possible. But I'd like the inevitable decline to be as quick and steep as possible. I had one grandparent who lingered on for ages and another who died quickly from a massive stroke.

    Everyone was grateful at the funeral that she was living independently not a month before her death. Can't stand the thought of being highly dependant myself.
    It is all about quality, I have seen young people who have had CPR following prolonged arrest have been left with no quality of life. And Older people who have the same quality of life as prior to the arrest.
    It all depends on the quality of life for me before my arrest and my potential to maintain that after.


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