Status Updates From لأن الإنسان فانٍ: الطب وما ...

The simple view is that medicine exists to fight death and disease, and that is, of course, its most basic task. Death is the enemy. But the enemy has superior forces. Eventually, it wins.
And in a war that you cannot win, you don't want a general who fights to the point of total annihilation… You want someone who understands that the damage is greatest if all you do is battle to the bitter end.

The conversation that we all need to have when the chemotherapy stops working, when we face high-risk surgery, when we become unable to dress ourselves. I've heard Swedish doctors call it a "breakpoint discussion" a series of conversations to sort out when they need to switch from fighting for time to fighting for the other things that people value-being with family or traveling or enjoying chocolate ice cream.

“In other words, our decision making in medicine has failed so spectacularly that we have reached the point of actively inflicting harm on patients rather than confronting the subject of mortality. If end-of-life discussions were an experimental drug, the FDA would approve it.”

Oof

Wait a beat before someone’s done talking to make sure they are really done

Had to return to library but will check it out again next month. Anecdotal discussion of health care for elderly I nIs: very good so far’