Forum: Before you die, speak up

Forum: Before you die, speak up:

I am an intensive care physician. My days are mostly spent working with a dedicated, caring team resuscitating people from septic shock and respiratory failure back to health.

Unfortunately, many of our patients, already near the end of life with serious advanced illnesses, would not want and will not benefit from these heroic measures that we've inflicted on them -- but the paperwork and orders necessary to prevent them are not in place.

In these cases, we work, a bit too late, to put things right and to do right by these people who entrust us to do our best for them. We are privileged to help those who will get better and to comfort those who will not. But we can do better.

I wrote this a few years ago, but it has become pertinent again along with these pieces written by Gary Rotstein, health reporter for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

End-of-life questions often go unasked

Disabled worry lives not valued

So now, they are bookmarked in the blog.

UPDATE: two recent op-eds in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette of note:

The last days of our lives: Our health-care system needs to provide better, more thoughtful end-of-life care.
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
By Dr. Robert Arnold and Nancy Zionts

Sunday Forum: Forget the euthanasia talk -- end-of-life care is needed
It's time to debunk the misconceptions about provisions in the health-care reform bill, says RAFAEL J. SCIULLO
Sunday, August 23, 2009

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