88.3 percent of doctors would forgo resuscitation and aggressive treatment if facing a terminal illness or end of life, according to a recent study from the Stanford University School of Medicine. Even with the Self-Determination Act in 1990, a law designed to give patients more control over determining end-of-life-care decisions, physicians attitudes didn’t change…the majority of docs have always wanted to die at home.

One doctor in the study talked about how she felt anguish (with tears sometimes coming down her face as she said, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry!), when she had to perform CPR on the elderly because she felt like she was beating them up—in real life ribs break and few survive anyway. Doctors are trained to prolong life after all…and give hope to families. So many don’t know how to have that difficult conversation about impending death and planning for it.

Did you know: despite 80 percent of you (in America) saying you want to avoid hospitalizations and aggressive treatment at the end of life, often it’s the local health-care system that determines the type of care you receive.

What about you? Have you thought about, or envisioned, what the end of your life would look like?

I know I have—a death that is swift and peaceful—a gentle death without extraordinary measures—not in the hospital.
Would you ever forgo treatment (like chemo) and choose to have comfort care so you can enjoy the rest of the time you have left?

Or, having an advanced disease, would you choose limited medical care or the “do everything possible” approach (including CPR even if you end up needing resuscitation and having a ventilator because you can’t breathe on your own, unable to eat or talk).

Your end-of-life is something worth thinking through now…and talking to your family about.

Jimmy Carter, 90, the 39th president of the USA, announced today that he has been diagnosed with widely-spread cancer. One of the statements from the deputy chief medical officer of the American Cancer Society was, “Given the president’s age, any treatments, their potential and their impacts, will undoubtedly be discussed carefully with him and his family.”

Melanie Hack
Author of Who Killed My Sister, My Friend
Read an excerpt now
TV Shows and Clips about the Death of Cindy James