Shodan:
This, very much.
It is, in my experience, much harder to stop doctors once they are started. It tends to be all, or nothing, and doing even one thing means they will do everything else. You start an IV to hydrate, and then they have a route to start pumping in antibiotics for pneumonia, and so on, and so on.
That is one of the advantages of hospice over hospital - hospitals are full of people who think in terms of prolonging life above all else, and they can always think of something to do to get her “over this crisis”. And the next, and the next.
If you get a DNR, make sure that everybody, on all shifts, knows that it is there. If she has a living will, make sure it is in her chart. If you and the rest of the family come to consensus on what to do, make sure it is documented in her chart.
There was a major brouhaha at the hospital system at which I worked some years back, where the physicians resisted a sticker on the outside of the chart saying that there was a living will on file. They didn’t want to know.
Don’t know if it is still that way. My condolences to you and your family.
Regards,
Thank you. This is how I’ve always known the process to be. However, there is so much drama attached. Some of it is so :eek: that I can’t even post it here. Suffice to say that it’s not going well, or within the patient’s wishes.