Lucy Pollock

“Dee Mangin is a GP from New Zealand. In a video clip she made in 2017 she talked about a seventy year old woman who had five common condtions: high blood pressure (most people over seventy have that), diabetes, arthritis, osteoporosis and COPD. Dee explained that if her patient was treated for each of these condition, according to current guidance, she would take nineteen doses of twelve different medications at five different times of day. Dee next observed that this would give rise to at least sixteen possible harmful interactiosn; either the drugs may interact with one another, or a drug that improved one condition may inadvertently worsen something else. She went on to say that what looked like good care, if you considered only single diseases, could result in ‘meaningfully worse care’ for the individual. Pg119”
― Lucy Pollock, The Book About Getting Older

“In the event of my being in a state in which I do not have capacity to make decisions about my care, and from which the chance of recovery is minimal, I do not wish to have life-sustaining treatment… for example a feeding tube… I would like to receive care directed at the alleviation of suffering…’ pg223”
― Lucy Pollock, The Book About Getting Older