Posted: Thursday, October 1, 2009 12:00 am
|
Updated: 9:32 am, Wed Sep 5, 2012.
Quest for truth on health care
As a member of a hospital geriatric emergency team, I’m on the front lines of a major health care issue that needs immediate attention. The costs of keeping a person barely alive during their last few weeks of life easily run into the millions. The procedures undertaken at such times are painful and poorly thought out, and do not at all increase the quality of one’s life. The unfortunate senior who falls into the end-of-life emergency medical cycle can expect his or her final days to be miserable and lonely, with family relegated to the sidelines, while medical people rush around administering “care.” Such a person is robbed of dignity, and robbed of the right to die with loved ones nearby.
The reason why medical teams are pressured to perform endless procedures on our most ill seniors is because the legal and ethical issues at stake are in limbo. That’s because the questions raised are not just for individuals to answer, but for society as well. They are questions for a nation.
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Posted in
Letters to the editor
on
Thursday, October 1, 2009 12:00 am.
Updated: 9:32 am.
