Revival: The dirty secret that doctors do not speak

Hardly anyone is aware of the true situation, doctors are discovering the real truth about the revival

Numerous things have changed in medicine over the past few decades. But with improvements in patient care, there has been an exponential increase in people's expectations.

Somehow we have moved from "your neighbor has a lethal disease and we will do everything in our power to heal and reduce the pain" to "your neighbor has a disease for which there is no cure, but we will still treat him as if he were there."

The problem is that we all die sooner or later. But even those with terminal illnesses are rarely aware of their own mortality, as well as their loved ones, and have unrealistic expectations about what doctors can do. Job doctor became the people give hope and prescribe medication, but in a situation where they themselves should decide what kind of treatment they want, they would more often than other mortals refused treatment. Is it about the secrets of the profession with which they are familiar, or understanding that it is better to live better are the secrets that they keep to themselves because of the Hippocratic Oath, but still would like to know people. Everyone working in the health system know that he himself, especially if it concerns care at end of life, very bad. But there are things that people can do yourself to take control of their health or their loved ones.

1. Understanding the revival

Almost universally, involves pressure on the chest, intravenous medications, mechanical blowing air and defibrillation. In cases where resuscitation goal is not just survival but a return to a previous level of functioning, the chances of success are disturbingly small. Finally, if your doctor offered surgery that has only 1.7 per cent chance of improving your condition, while the sick in a disturbing, most people probably would not have chosen.

In our society, care and love equated with time to "do everything". As people age, the emphasis should be on quality rather than quantity of life, people often ignore this for selfish reasons do not want to let someone. I was present at countless revival and their attempts with very mixed results.

Often these are people who are enlivened only for the welfare of their families, and the rest of their lives are spent immobile and dependent on life support. I believe that our role as physicians to treat the disease, and at the moment in which it comes to that - facilitate death. My father refused revival once it is cracked aorta did not object to that, but I let him go, but maintained it alive long enough to say goodbye. If I was in a deep coma, I would rather be artificially run live - it simply does not make sense, says nephrologist Pascal Lane.

2. Understanding what revival is not

Revival is not a guarantee of the survival of life as an individual before had a Hollywood gives us a false picture of it. According to the analysis of large doctoral series on TV, 75 percent of people go back to the "old self." The truth is different. The average chance of success to revive the young, healthy people (which means that the function of the brain intact) is only 30 percent. In older people with chronic medical conditions is only 1-3 percent.

For some patients, it is approaching zero. People think that the revival of works so that you simply return from the dead without consequence, but the reality is different - the most common damage various organs and systems. I would not go to the ICU if the cause of the disease could not be removed, and certainly would not have agreed to a feeding tube or on the machine to breathe for me. I think it would help most doctors said she would like to die in the peace of your home. When I first began working stunned patient who refused treatment, but his words I remembered "One should know when it prolongs life, but differ when elongate death. If we extend death, prolong the pain," says a doctor Isobel El-Shanawany.

3. Risks revival

Everyone thinks that the revival well as life-saving. It is of course true, but only sometimes. But all medical treatments have risks and side effects associated with them, it is the inherent nature of practicing medicine. In the long term, patients may end up with poor neurological functions, dependent on machines that breathe for them, with no hope of return on the back because of a previous lung disease or other complicating medical conditions. They can be tied to the bed and develop sores on various parts of the body. These ulcers can become infected. Often they are bound not to throat ripped out the tubes that are kept alive, but many still make it almost to delirium.

Many patients get urinary infections for which the mandatory catheter, and often become incontinent. A large number of families can feel trapped by this situation, believing that their neighbor beat outlook after a heart attack or a similar condition, and is unjustly ended up tied to a bed with many problems.

However, it is important to mention that never too late to give up artificial life support. - This is not the same as denial of care or causing death, because a disease that's behind it all, and has led to this state - say physicians.

• 11 Feb, 2018
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