Have you had conversations with your family about your
end-of-life wishes? Dying with dignity
is a part of life well lived. Most
seriously ill patients are unable to express their wishes and also are unable
to communicate any suffering at the end of life. In more than 88% of doctor-patient- family
conferences during serious illness, there was no conversation about the
patient’s own values and wishes. (Critical Care Medicine April 2015).
Decisions about using life support (breathing machines,
dialysis, transfusions etc) usually hinge on trade-offs between the length and
quality of life. And they are influenced
on the person’s understanding of their expected level of function, independence
and comfort. But most people who are
critically ill are incapacitated and therefore the family members try to make
the decisions for them. So does your
family REALLY understand what you would want?
And do you understand the implications of the life-support treatments?
You can be comfortable and have your wishes carried out but
only if you take the right steps now.
Talk with your family. We all
will die, but some of us will have a plan in place to die in comfort. You can too!
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