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How Doctors die. It’s not like the rest of us (2016)

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Re: How Doctors die. It’s not like the rest of us (2016)

#121

Post by hobo123 »

biomattr wrote: post #32
ggm wrote: post #2

> Many people think of CPR as a reliable lifesaver when, in fact, the results are usually poor. I’ve had hundreds of people brought to me in the emergency room after getting CPR. Exactly one, a healthy man who’d had no heart troubles (for those who want specifics, he had a ‘tension pneumothorax’), walked out of the hospital. This point has been made by many medically trained people over decades. It's a very energetic…

If CPR is done right ~10% will walk out of the hospital. But that's a big if! Must be near a trained bystander. AED is much better on shockable rhythms, ~70%. Unfortunately most out-of-hospital cardiac events occur in homes which rarely have access to a device. In 2021, a drone-delivered AED was used to successfully shock a 71-year-old man back into a stable rhythm in Sweden. The drone delivered the AED in just over…

This is very cool and should become a standard feature at least in reasonably dense populated areas.

Re: How Doctors die. It’s not like the rest of us (2016)

#122

Post by tonyedgecombe »

buran77 wrote: post #109
teiferer wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreeing with your overall sentiment, but this caught my eye: > If I'm 80, I'm (somewhat) less concerned with length of life, and more concerned with quality. If I'm 50 that's a different equation Why is that? Is quality less important at 50? Would you be more willing to endure suffering if you are younger? Why? I'm thinking that no matter age, people would generally like to avoid a painful death. Maybe it's because…

> Why is that? By 80 most people have reconciled with the idea that they don't have too many years left even in the best of conditions. There's no hope of extending life, and there's little to look forward to, they already lived through all the important milestones they could realistically see. Quality is all that's left to hope for. At 50 they still can still hope for recovery and a life beyond that. They have a lot…

My parents are in their eighties and they still have a good quality of life and things to look forward to.

They do have some health issues but they aren’t decrepit.

Re: How Doctors die. It’s not like the rest of us (2016)

#123

Post by freedomben »

ido wrote: post #86
codemog wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are you hoping to get out of asking this question? It sounds like you already know the answer.

I don't know, that's why I'm asking! If I'm in that situation I hope this option is available to me, and want to know what to ask for. If the answer is that it's illegal I'd know I can't ask this directly/explicitly (but maybe there's a "secret handshake" way of asking for it). If it is I'd know I can. I wish no harm to OP.

See https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48878167

IANAD but have paid close attention to this for the same reasons. When my time comes I plan to let them know I'm in serious pain and prefer pain relief to life extension (though maybe in a more subtle way). I expect most will understand that.

Re: How Doctors die. It’s not like the rest of us (2016)

#125

Post by rimeice »

I don’t think you have to be a doctor to come to this conclusion. After therapy I realised that the most traumatic thing that took the longest to get over wasn’t watching my Dad die, it was watching him suffer through futile attempts to prolong his life by a few days in intensive care. I wish the doctors had been clearer with us about his chances of survival, I wish we had been brave/knowledgable enough to accept that it was the end and I vow never to put my loves ones through that when my time comes.

Re: How Doctors die. It’s not like the rest of us (2016)

#127

Post by teiferer »

mchinen wrote: post #106
teiferer wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The cryonics industry is an unbelievable scam. You habe watched too much scifi my friend.

Are you knowledgeable about this, and are you talking about the established institutions? If so please explain.

You can start by reading about Larry Johnson's whistleblower story.

Re: How Doctors die. It’s not like the rest of us (2016)

#128

Post by fzeroracer »

I can't say I agree, I think it's more about the death's you're exposed to. Doctors get to experience the full brunt of how the medical system treats patients, the good and the bad. So they opt out of it when it's close to their time so they can die a peaceful death.

But a peaceful death at home is rarely real in my opinion. My father was pretty badly traumatized by his mother who had oral cancer, got a bit through treatment and then refused to continue. His last days with her were spent as she slowly starved and went through terminal dehydration, barely conscious through the drugs hospice used to try and make the passage easier. It's something we tell ourselves post-hoc to try and make ourselves feel better because they died at home with family.

This doesn't mean dying in a hospital is much easier and often family keeps people in a state of semi-torture so that they can have more time. But that I think sometimes we have this 'ideal' of how we want to die, and the reality will always be much messier than that.

Re: How Doctors die. It’s not like the rest of us (2016)

#129

Post by yunwal »

Someone wrote: post #117
buran77 wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Why is that? By 80 most people have reconciled with the idea that they don't have too many years left even in the best of conditions. There's no hope of extending life, and there's little to look forward to, they already lived through all the important milestones they could realistically see. Quality is all that's left to hope for. At 50 they still can still hope for recovery and a life beyond that. They have a lot…

> By 80 most people have […] already lived through all the important milestones they could realistically see. That’s at least partially culturally determined. As the healthy live expectancy creeps up slowly, I expect that idea to change. There’s some truth in the saying “50 is the new 40”

This doesn’t really make a difference in the argument. You can sub 80 with 90 and the point remains the same. There is some age where you stop caring about trying to be cured, and just care about the quality of life in the immediate future

Re: How Doctors die. It’s not like the rest of us (2016)

#130

Post by [deleted] »

jrapdx3 wrote: post #19

I'm a physician, an old one. We're lucky to live as long as we do, but life will end. The article emphasizes the value of dying peacefully. Sure, that's how we want it to be, but we have to make it known to assure it goes that way. Don't know what happens elsewhere, but every time I see a doctor someone asks if I have a signed, notarized directive. Yes, I've done that, but so should everybody else concerned about the…

[deleted]
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