Just in my observations of the ‘hospital population’ over the last 25 years or so is how many more frail people with multiple medical issues there are now. They often take longer to recover from issue/illness, have more complications and end their episode being even more frail.
Do you suppose it's because of medical intervention these individuals have lived longer lives? So it appears like there are more “frail people” - where as 25+ years ago they would just have died of any one of those “multiple medical issues”? Now we have pace makers, animal heart valves, blood pressure tablets, 'life saving' modern surgeries, etc.
I was reading an option the other week about how modern medicine hasn't really improved older people’s lives - just prolonged it.
Just in my observations of the ‘hospital population’ over the last 25 years or so is how many more frail people with multiple medical issues there are now. They often take longer to recover from issue/illness, have more complications and end their episode being even more frail.
Do you suppose it's because of medical intervention these individuals have lived longer lives? So it appears like there are more “frail people” - where as 25+ years ago they would just have died of any one of those “multiple medical issues”? Now we have pace makers, animal heart valves, blood pressure tablets, 'life saving' modern surgeries, etc.
I was reading an option the other week about how modern medicine hasn't really improved older people’s lives - just prolonged it.
I've thought for years about all this (i was a nurse). It seems like a medical experiment to prolong life but with no thought of quality of life or caring for those that aren't dead yet. I don't think there's much chance of reintroducing caring in the current climate. but it keeps the drug companies and their shareholders happy so sod the rest of us
I agree with @nutcutlet Our ability to treat many illnesses has increased exponentially over the years, and because we can, many Drs. think we should. Too often the quality of life is totally ignored.
How can you lie there and think of England When you don't even know who's in the team
One of the greatest problems I had in my medical career, was deciding not to treat someone. It was so much easier to carry on doing everything, rather than making the tortuous decision to stop.
How can you lie there and think of England When you don't even know who's in the team
it becomes the job of the families to say 'enough' but maybe that's how it ought to be. I've had to do that twice now - it's a terrible decision but, if you're honest with yourself, you do know when someone can't bear it any more. It always seems so terribly sad, for many reasons, when families are desperate for treatment to continue and it's the doctors saying 'no more'.
Gardening on the edge of Exmoor, in Devon
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
It's so much easier when the relative themself has made their wishes known in writing before they became incapable. This was the case with my mother - she had written a "living will" (official name Advance Directive, I think), which said that if she became terminally ill or mentally incapable - can't remember the exact wording - she would refuse treatment which would prolong her life. The document went with her into a Home when her dementia became too advanced for her to express herself. It made it her decision rather than just ours when at 97 she developed a condition which would have been treated in a younger person who didn't have the additional problems Mum had. It was still incredibly painful to lose her, but it was her decision, and therefore the right one.
Since 2019 I've lived in east Clare, in the west of Ireland.
There’s a brilliant cartoon on the “a sense of humus” thread that sums up the idea of a prolonged life @Blue Onion.
I would like to see more people having Advanced Directives, as @Liriodendron described. More over, I wish that having these discussions was a more integral part of people’s healthcare experience. By that I mean that it could be discussed more readily at GP reviews, consultations and hospital admissions. This needs a both a change in public culture to make advanced decisions (and talk about illness, death and dying) plus a change in medical culture to make the time to offer these discussions (plus the mind-set, confidence and skill to do it).
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I was reading an option the other week about how modern medicine hasn't really improved older people’s lives - just prolonged it.
but it keeps the drug companies and their shareholders happy so sod the rest of us
In the sticks near Peterborough
Our ability to treat many illnesses has increased exponentially over the years, and because we can, many Drs. think we should.
Too often the quality of life is totally ignored.
When you don't even know who's in the team
S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border
When you don't even know who's in the team
S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”