Mt Whitney Zone Forums The Chat Room No code -- How Doctors Die

Ken that was such an honest and candid article. I really appreciated it.There are not many doctors that would spell out the end of life issues like you did.
I for one, by occupation, tend away from the over utilization of drugs and surgery, Certainly there are cases where it is indicated.

It is paradoxical though when my own father became ill with congestive heart failure,pneumonia and kidney failre at age 86.He also had a large abdominal aneurism that was deemed too high risk to repair.My father was admitted into an ER and placed in a CCU. The care was amazing. Too amazing. Through dialysis and meds they got the fluid out of his lungs, got his heart and kidneys functioning. They were ready to release him when his abdominal aneurysm burst while in CCU. He underwent a 6 hour proceedure to fix the aneurism.4 more weeks of CCU and a regiment of dialysis 3 times a week for the rest of his life.
Ken my dad would never had wanted to be " saved" to live the next two years in a steady pathway of deteriorating health to the loss of self reliance and ultimately loss of dignity in a nursing home.The doctors saved my dad with their amazing treatments to live 2 years in a miserable state of dementia,dialysis and bed ridden hell on earth.

My dad should never had any of the heroic proceedures that kept him alive in a poor quality of life existence.The paradox is I was right there helping to make the health care decisions that ended up giving him a poor quality of life that my dad would have never agreed to. The problem is that when you admit your aging eldely parents to an ER they automaticaly do the things they are trained to do.They "save" lives. They keep rescuing the dying for every emergency they encounter.You as a family member are caught up in the care offered to your loved one and can't stand back far enough to see the big picture.

If I knew back then what I knew after the treatments I would have opted to let my father pass the way his body had intended for him to die.No heroic measures to keep a sick dying body alive.There are worse things than death. Watching your father suffer in a nursing home in a diaper unaware of the world is horrible.
Ken I couldn't agree more with why a doctor knowing the inevitable outcome would opt out of end of life treatments.