DavHamm wrote:
Kay Serrar wrote:
ThisIsIt wrote:
len wrote:
I have a patient who is in the last stages of Lou Gehrig's disease at present. Its hard to make those housecalls. Dying by inches.Yeah, I'd have to say that would be the worst. Some sort of awful progressive disease where you know what's coming, it hurts or at least greatly disables and it takes a long time (terminal cancer, Huntington's disease, ALS, muscular dystrophy, etc.)
A friend of mine from school got CJD (human mad cow disease). That has to be the worst, knowing your brain is going to irreversibly turn to mush and you will be dead within a year, most of which will be a miserable, bedridden experience.
In either of these cases, I am pretty sure I would set up for early termination, now when is that point??
Probably the point I can no longer communicate that I don't want you to end it.
Unfortunately, this is a questionable point. What is considered communication? While working in extended care facility, I had couple of patients with Lou Gerigh. Lawyers, doctors and families were challenging the patient's will to die and each other. Is blinking as a response to a verbal question communication? Is squeeze of a hand communication? Can the patient do this all the time? One patient could communicate by tapping Morse code with his finger. Or they can look at the screen and eye movements be tracked by a camera and the patient can put words together. The dispute turned quite nasty and the lawyers profited the most.