http://www.newsweek.com/id/214770Good read and backed up by many studies about over treatment. LindyThis is precisely what Bill Moyer had to say on his PBS show last week. Good article. I see overuse everyday. Dr's readily admit it. Patient insist on all these tests. What is a doctor to do when confronted by patients? I don't blame the doctors. It is their livelihood. Furthermore, we did CPR on a 104 year old man the other night. The nurse doing compressions could hear his ribs breaking. She was totally upset by the whole situation. This is what happens when people think they are never going to die. The guy died.Lor,
Did he have a health directive? Is that what the family wanted? Or is that standard procedure for hospitals if there is no directive or family to ask?
Ya know, I just recently became aware that CPR could break ribs or collapse a lung -- they never showed that on ER. I think a lot of people get their impressions about "end of life" from tv, not until they lose a loved one, do they realize what it really is like.
When my husband suffered a massive heart attack and subsequent cardiac arrest while at work, he suffered 3 cracked ribs when my friend performed CPR on him. Thank goodness my husband had the sense to drop dead next to a 6'3" plumbing contractor who was built like a tank, and not me, who was 7 months pregnant at the time. Cracked ribs are a small price to pay!
When we took an infant CPR class, the other parents thought I was being too forceful when practicing on the fake baby - going so far as to laugh and make jokes about child abuse. They stopped laughing, however, when the instructor said that while my "child" would definitely be bruised and possibly have cracked ribs, he/she would be alive - whereas the others would probably have died because not enough force is used.
I think there is no question that CPR should be performed on an infant or someone that has had a heart attack, even though there is the possibility of cracked ribs.
But I think the family of a 104 year old needs to weigh the situation, because "only 5 to 10 percent of patients over 70 survive resuscitation in a hospital."
Source: "End of Life Issues," by Jane Brody, New York Times.
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[QUOTE=Joie]I think there is no question that CPR should be performed on an infant or someone that has had a heart attack, even though there is the possibility of cracked ribs.
But I think the family of a 104 year old needs to weigh the situation, because "only 5 to 10 percent of patients over 70 survive resuscitation in a hospital."
Source: "End of Life Issues," by Jane Brody, New York Times.
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Statistics for out-of-hospital CPR attempts (even for "younger" patients) is even more dismal
When insurance won't cover a biologic..isn't that rationing?