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shnnn73 t1_j4v9bbj wrote

Reply to comment by subcuriousgeorge in Family Dynamics and Doctors' Emotions Drive Useless End-of-Life Care. Surveys repeatedly indicate that nearly all people would rather die peacefully at home, yet painful, long-shot treatments remain common, and efforts to reduce usage have failed by Wagamaga

ICU RN…. We also wish people would go on hospice sooner! Unfortunately, it almost always comes down to patient and family decisions. Some families have a very difficult time accepting end of life news.

A patient can be 95 with a very low quality of life and families will insist on keeping them alive as along as possible.

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0skullkrusha0 t1_j4vfm00 wrote

My post above describes exactly that. I’m an ICU RN as well and I shudder at every 90+ patient I get when it’s clear they’ve been declining for a very long time and they are “full codes.” And the family just can’t shut up about how Mom or Dad is gonna be right as rain in no time. Or acting as if a potassium/BUN/Cr level normalizing is gonna be the moment they’re back to their old selves. Like at what point will they realize that old age is the one illness none of us can survive?

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puppyinashoe t1_j4wbrh7 wrote

Yes I’m an ICU nurse and this is the most difficult part of our jobs. I love my job but I hate working an assignment where I am truly just torturing an intubated 90 year old who has no hope of meaningful recovery and is spending their last days, their last memories, with me turning them q2 and assaulting their mouth with q4 oral care. We just extubated a 90 year old who lasted 5 days on the floor and is now back after aspirating and coding. She’s re-intubated and the daughter is STILL saying if she was successfully extubated once it can happen again. But only lasting 5 days before having to be reintubated d/t a lack of airway protection doesn’t seem successful in my mind.

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swellswirly t1_j4wepn4 wrote

My 89 YO dad had CLL and injured his spleen in a fall. He ended up at a trauma center where we had an extensive conversation with the doctor about his end of life wishes. After a few days he ended getting sepsis, became too weak to swallow, and we declined a feeding tube for him. They had a palliative team who kept him medicated until he peacefully died. There is no way he wanted to be kept alive in that state, at a certain point we all die.

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