Her lips were red, her looks were free,
Her locks were yellow as gold:
Her skin was as white as leprosy,
The Nightmare Life-in-Death was she,
Who thicks man’s blood with cold.~ Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Sarah Kliff follows up on how doctors die. I quote her quoting Sharron Brownlee
There is good evidence that physicians have thought out end-of-life issues more thoroughly than lay people and are more likely to decline medical intervention. For example, they sign advance directives far more often than the rest of us do. Less than half of severely or terminally ill patients have an advance directive in their medical records.
. . .
Why would doctors be so anxious to avoid the very procedures they deliver to their patients every day? For one thing, they know firsthand that these procedures are most often futile when performed on a frail, elderly, chronically ill person.
This is the kind of explanation that resonates with people, but upon closer examination seems unlikely. Is it really that doctors say “Well the chances are low so forget it.”
What do they have to lose? Why not at least try to live?
Having seen this process up close with family member my bet is that they are not afraid the procedure won’t work. They are afraid that it will.
What are in then is the limbo of being undead. Sometimes literally a zombie, lying on the bed incapacitated, unable to communicate. In almost all cases knowing that you have only bought a temporary reprieve and that very soon everyone is going to go through this process again.
Each time your family will be on edge, unable to say goodbye. Each time you will not know for sure whether this is really the end.
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Tuesday ~ January 17th, 2012 at 5:24 pm
Corey Mutter
I’ve read that advance directives in some States are fatally (heh) flawed. E.g. they might be worded such that if you signed one, and had a terminal prognosis but many years left, and got pneumonia, they’d be forbidden from treating the pneumonia.
Wednesday ~ January 18th, 2012 at 7:06 am
Mr. Violet (@EuropeanViolet)
The many men, so beautiful!
And they all dead did lie:
And a thousand thousand slimy things
Lived on; and so did I. [...]
Within the shadow of the ship
I watched their rich attire:
Blue, glossy green, and velvet black,
They coiled and swam; and every track
Was a flash of golden fire.
O happy living things! no tongue
Their beauty might declare:
A spring of love gushed from my heart,
And I blessèd them unaware:
Sure my kind saint took pity on me,
And I blessed them unaware.
The self-same moment I could pray;
And from my neck so free
The Albatross fell off, and sank
Like lead into the sea. [...]
The loud wind never reached the ship,
Yet now the ship moved on!
Beneath the lightning and the Moon
The dead men gave a groan.
They groaned, they stirred, they all uprose,
Nor spake, nor moved their eyes;
It had been strange, even in a dream,
To have seen those dead men rise. [...]
‘I fear thee, ancient Mariner!’
Be calm, thou Wedding-Guest!
‘Twas not those souls that fled in pain,
Which to their corses came again,
But a troop of spirits blest:
For when it dawned—they dropped their arms,
And clustered round the mast;
Sweet sounds rose slowly through their mouths,
And from their bodies passed. [...]
Wednesday ~ January 18th, 2012 at 8:33 am
Axel
Very interesting point.
Just another intuition that could play some role: could it be related as well to the usual reality denial attitude to deal with hard reality you’re confronted to in your job ? I mean I’ve always been impressed by the number of doctors I met in Fce who are smoking, drinking, eating, etc.. Let’s say taking more risk than the average equivalently educated adult.
May be taking care of others, makes the burden of managing your own death massively higher ?
Wednesday ~ January 18th, 2012 at 2:58 pm
Becky Hargrove
Doctors have to live with the dictum of always being present and responsible: their life is time sacrifice and all that goes with it. It’s a burden they would share with society if only they could find a way to do so. They have a special connection with some among the chronically ill who do an effective job of managing their own survival, and the incentive to provide additional aid to those with the will to live is strong. Sometimes the will to go on is stronger, and many a doctor knows when it is.
Wednesday ~ January 18th, 2012 at 11:19 pm
Bill Pearson
Both of my parents were physicians and they both have been very explicit about not receiving extraordinary care. In part, they don’t trust other doctors; but more importantly, they understand that everyone dies. (In the 1970′s, my father remarked that every year after 80 was borrowed time.) Dying more quickly, with less pain, is easier on the patient and their loved ones.