Doctors don’t like to lose but she tells me she is ready to go. Now it’s important to maintain her comfort and dignity | The Guardian Healthcare Network
Mrs S is 93 years old and has severe pneumonia. She is sitting up in bed, with a big unwieldy mask strapped to her nose and mouth like a facehugger from Alien. This device is all that keeps her from lapsing into a coma. I sit at her bedside. We have just met. I am here to talk to her about her death.
As the medical registrar for a big hospital, I am often called in to help by other specialties when trouble arrives. Some days, by the time I’m summoned, trouble has already got its feet under the table. On rare days, I really am there to save lives. Other days, I feel like the grim reaper, stalking the halls like death in a pencil skirt.
As our knowledge continues to advance, and the menu of available treatments continues to expand, we can do more and more to keep people alive. But every day in hospitals up and down the country, the debate continues to rage as to what we should do. It’s a discussion that sounds like it should have a simple answer. Patients want to live; families want to do their best for their loved ones; doctors don’t like to lose and it’s easy to default to a “Do everything that you can” mindset.
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