There's lumberthing I want to tell you

[glatt]

Sorry Jim.

Watching my FIL at the end kind of made me wonder about the whole point of modern medicine at the end of life. Doctors are trained to keep treating the patient. It's not their job to wonder if they should treat the patient. I can see treating the heart condition and putting a pacemaker in as long as he's getting some enjoyment out of life, but after blowing out an aorta and having a stroke, isn't it time to just let a man have some dignity and die in peace? I wonder if the pacemaker kept him alive when the stroke would have killed him otherwise and just prolonged the misery? Sorry. I'm probably projecting too much. I don't know a thing about your friend. But I'm sorry for your loss.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Sorry Jim, losing friends sucks.

Originally Posted by glatt

Doctors are trained to keep treating the patient. It's not their job to wonder if they should treat the patient.

Doctors are bound by oath and law to do everything they can to keep you alive, until somebody tells them to stop. Unless you spell it out clearly ahead of time it's left to spouse/kids who say, For Mom/Dad, of course, do everything possible. They don't want to think about how much suffering Mom/Pop are experiencing by dragging it out. They don't want to be the one to say pull the plug. So Mom/Pop lives a few more months or a year in a miserable state.

Obamacare had a provision to pay doctors to sit down with patients and explain their end of life options and how to guarantee it would happen the way they want. The disloyal opposition screamed, "Death Panels".

I think I posted a chart on what doctors chose for themselves. It was very heavy on pain relief, and very light on extraordinary measures.