balancedinsanity
balancedinsanity t1_j4vkeqp wrote
Reply to comment by mikerbyrne73 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
Even that leaves a lot of grey area. There is a pretty wide gap between 'you're dying right now' and ' you had an incident that we can treat but if we don't you will eventually die due to complications from this'.
This is privileged advice, but the best is having someone very close that you have spoken with about end of life issues and also emergency care issues. I.E. you will live but you will have to have a trach/feeding tube/wheelchair for the rest of your life, treat or not?
balancedinsanity t1_j4vk1hh wrote
Reply to 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 nurse here. In my experience medical professionals generally do a pretty good job of letting family know when it's time to switch to comfort measures. The reality is most people don't want to lose their loved one without having 'tried everything'.
It's easy to try and place blame, but this could be helped through public education. People should know what the dying process looks like and be prepared for it.
Other than maybe that one guy, no one is making it out of here alive. Let's all try to make it as nice as we can.
balancedinsanity t1_j52yvjw wrote
Reply to comment by EdanE33 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
I completely agree that it can be traumatizing for some people. As a provider I just want the people that aren't prepared to make decisions to walk away from making them. Alas, that is almost never the case.