Modern medicine has a massive array of capabilities and technological wonders to treat illness and sometime extend life. I don’t like the term in medicine that we “save lives” because we don’t. The best we do is help folks occasionally live longer.
There are two sides to the health care coin — because the same life-prolonging technology also can unfortunately extend misery when not used appropriately and with thoughtfulness.
Kevin Heifner
Therein lies the rub. The health care machine has to deal with this internally. We would be a lot more effective if we thought not just scientifically and medically, but emotionally, philosophically and theologically.
Extension of life is not the same as a good life. People like Socrates were kicking this around millennia ago.
So, there’s a difference between what we can do and often what we should do in medicine. Usually, we ask people, families, loved ones to participate in that process at absolutely their most vulnerable time — when they are facing the possible death of a loved one or at least a life extended with serious limitations.
Frankly, doctors often fail patients and their loved ones in these situations.
“Extension of life is not the same as a good life.”
My gentle encouragement to the public, as someone who’s done this a few years: Remember, you or your loved one is the patient, the client, the customer, the consumer.
But you have rights. And you should demand those. In particular, you should ask that your health care team led by your physician sit down with you regularly and give you updates:
- What is the problem?
- What is the prognosis?
- What is the likelihood that your loved one will leave the hospital in a condition they would want to continue living in?
- What are the good and the bad things about the wide array of treatment options?
Demand the answer to these questions. Often, it is better not to go down a particular path until it has been fully explored and understood.
And here’s the one place I’m going to ask you to trust me: Modern health care is capable of unleashing a tsunami of technology that often has not been carefully considered and sadly will extend misery rather than offering your loved one the care, attention and love they need when there really are not good long-term solutions.
Because we are either too busy or emotionally immature to tell you we cannot win all battles, it’s up to you to demand better from us.
Kevin Heifner is a Baptist layman and nephrologist in Little Rock, Ark.