Blurred Lines

It truly is frustrating, all these different cases about patients on life support. Why why why do patients have autonomy where a doctor's orders should be absolute and taken with the upmost consideration? It frustrates me to no end. Especially in times of great duress (such as when a child is on life support) the patient, or most likely parents, are not thinking clearly. That's their child in that bed with all the tubes in them and when they see their chest rise up and down they grasp onto any hope that they're alive; because miracles happen. In reality these miracles are few and far between, however, they do occur often when there is a misdiagnosis or the technology to understand the situation has simply not been developed yet. The healthcare field should be responsible in taking out the decision making for grieving people and not put them through the decision making process that should only rest on a physicians shoulders.

Such as it is with Israel Stinson's case, a tiny beautiful child in California who ended up on life support but was pronounced dead by several American neurologists. The family refused to believe that their little toddler could be gone so when Guatamalan doctors (who had never examined their patient in person) proclaimed that he was alive they used GoFundMe money to take their chances outside the US. In the end, and due to miscommunications, Israel did end up back at his previous hospital in LA but since he had already been proclaimed dead by the courts and his care futile by the hospital the plug was pulled from his machines and his tiny heart stopped beating immediately. Of course of the family was devastated.

Personally, I am all for patient / surrogate autonomy in some instances of care but the line has to be drawn somewhere; somewhere those who have gone through years of training to be certified for this line of work need to make the decision to be able to take care of their patients. The fear of being sued after making a momentous decision, however, does rest on the physicians shoulders and its to this extent that I understand why doctors want surrogate input. That way the final decision does not rest on their shoulders. Just because the doctor makes the rational decision though does not mean that they don't care. I think families have a hard time understanding that.

- Morning Drive-In Jam -

Now or Never - R3hab Remix

Back to Me - Marian Hill

Playing to Lose - Lemaitre, Stanaj

#MedExTierIII