I saw a piece on the news, I think it was on "60 Minutes" about the high number of older adults who receive care in the ICU that really doesn't prolong or improve their quality of life. There were several reasons for this including- that young doctors aren't given a lot of training on how to have end-of-life discussions; that sometimes the ICU doctor doesn't know the patient very well and might not be familiar with their wishes; that there is a mindset in American medicine that everything must be done/tested/evaluated in case the patient/family later take legal action. If I'm ever in that situation don't prolong my life, but don't deliberately end it either.






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