So far I have been using this blog to discuss the different experiences that I've had an emergency room. It is really hard for me to write. I don't really like to sit and just type for a really long time. One day not too long ago, it was really slow at the emergency room, so I decided to set up an account on Dragon NaturallySpeaking just to play around with. After using it for a little while, I thought it might be a good idea to start using it to help me write my blog. So here we are, this is my first blog entry using Dragon.
A few weeks ago, I saw a very elderly woman with a lot of chronic conditions, who suffered a fall with serious fractures. Her family was there at the bedside, and of course they were very concerned for her livelihood. After my doctor discovered the fractures on the x-ray films, he went in to discuss the possibility for making the patient status DNR before surgery (the acronym for "do not resuscitate," often given to elderly people who no longer would like to be succumbed to the trauma of extreme life-saving measures.). since the daughter had power of attorney, he needed to ask her for permission to make her mother status DNR. I remember seeing the grief-stricken face of the daughter. She must have felt like she was being told to make a death sentence for her mother. Like any sane person, her first question was "well, what do you think I should do?"
And of course, the doctor did exactly what made sense. He said, "well, if it were my mom, I think I would want the doctors to do everything they can to keep her alive." To me, his answer made perfect sense for someone that was thinking on their feet, and was going with their gut reaction as a human being, and not necessarily as a professional.
it's funny that this event happened right in the middle right when I was reading the book, "how good do we have to be?" by Harold Kushner. I just read a chapter about the relationships between fathers and sons, mothers and daughters. There comes a point when the parents will die, and we as children will have a fear of letting go, especially if there is the possibility that we could be considered the responsible parties for their death. The author actually spoke about the exact situation where the child was asked by a doctor whether or not they would like to make their parent status DNR. The author argued that our first instinct is to make sure that others around us will accept us, instead of rejecting us. Perhaps the doctor's first instinct was one made out of fear of rejection, instead of being willing to make an opinion from a professional perspective.
The doctor's primary concern is the patient's well-being. with this in mind, his first thought was no doubt that the patient would perhaps find a higher quality of life status DNR instead of having to risk suffering through a traumatic experience of having chest compressions with the possibility of broken ribs, just to keep the heart from stopping. If this were the case, the author suggested that the doctor should respond to the patient's daughter by saying, "from a medical standpoint, we would like to make your mother DNR status, would that be all right with you?" This way, all of the blame will be placed on the medical professional, so that the daughter would feel more at ease with allowing her mother to pass on. Having a third party make the decision will look at matters objectively. Since this particular third party's perspective is from a doctor, it may have enough weight for the daughter to consider its worthiness as an option. Additionally, the daughter would be able to write off any guilt by blaming it on the doctor for making the decision.
What you guys think? To me, this is a very touchy subject. I have my hesitations for writing about it,but I would really like to encourage hearing other peoples opinions. This simply allows me to process the ways of handling very important relationships with other people
