An article by Ron Liddle (who I often don't agree with) in this day's Sunday Times neatly demonstrates the arrogance with which doctors can decide on a patient's wellbeing and mode of death. It regards a young boy who was pronounced "brain-dead" and was kept for a long while on life support in hospital. The parents wished to continue treatment when the doctors (and several judges) decided that it was no longer possible to continue care (IN THAT SITUATION). The parents wished to move the boy to a hospice so that (probably funded by them) he would continue to be cared for in the hope of some recovery in future. The doctors over-ruled this - they had decided in their wisdom that it would be THEY and they alone who would perform the life termination procedure. They simply refused to allow transfer to a hospice. As Liddle wrote, this is the triumph of procedure over humanity. Unhappily this distortion of patient's rights is only too frequent in medicine.
I simply record this attitude to demonstrate what patients in many circumstances have to endure.
It is not even possible for a patient to request a medication and present a written statement that it is they and they alone, who would be responsible for the outcome. I have personally tried this. In this way, medicine has become a procedural activity rather than a humane one.
[Edited by admin. This post is *NOT* for discussion of the particular case mentioned, which is currently in the media.
Please keep all comments on topic, which is the last paragraph highlighted in bold.]
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diogenes
Remembering
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Have to agree. I haven't followed all the details, just the legal bits, but they told us my mother was brain dead. She recovered and lived another, good quality, 7 years.I don't understand why, if they were so convinced he was brain stem dead, they wouldn't allow him to go to a hospice. He would not be aware of any pain, so why not?
Moving someone on life support is not in the patients best interest, the transfer from machines let alone travelling would be hugely problematic and I know this because I have been in that situation with my late husband who was on life support for a month in a hospital 200 miles from home. As much as we may not like the decisions made there are times when sense has to prevail and we have to accept that what we as a family would like is simple not achievable.
I hadn’t looked at the situation from the perspective you describe and you’ve opened my eyes to the procedural way that things are done. I’m so used to the way the system operates i have become a part of it and often do feel i should tread carefully and not offend the Dr - but its my life and my body so why shouldn’t i try different things if i want to without having to break down the huge barriers that are put in my way! Great point Diogenes and a very helpful thought for the day!
That case was so sad and follows on many others where the parents have been at odds with doctors over their child's life. I understand the public isn't privy to all the information but doctors are coming over as very heavy handed and arrogant.
I find the medical profession very hypocritical, many oppose assisted dying which is overwhelmingly supported by the public in this country. Yet they stuck thousands on the Liverpool Care Pathway and during covid put many people on DNR orders arbitrarily.
The very cynical part of me wonders if cost isn't a driving factor.
It is not even possible for a patient to request a medication and present a written statement that it is they and they alone, who would be responsible for the outcome
I have to self medicate, my GP is not over the moon but now accepts that I have a right to adopt patient autonomy. I have given her a written statement , my decision, stating that the responsibility is mine alone because I think she fears I am killing myself, perhaps leaving her with a dead body with a high FT3 to explain away. My GPs recognise that I have improved!
The fear of litigation is rife.....I suspect this fear is behind many decisions taken now. In times past this did not exist and rightly or wrongly medics had more freedom to use their professional judgement. Think Gordon Skinner et al.
The situation with young Archie has been dreadful and the decision to switch off his life support cannot have come easily to medics.....they are not all uncaring monsters.
I watched as medics fought to save my then 8 week old grandson whom GPs failed to diagnose as having a very rare heart condition. He eventually was blue-lighted to a specialist hospital where they operated immediately because he was running out of time.....the team cared for him day and night. They feared he was brain damaged....and so on
In short he recovered, is now a happy energetic and highly intelligent 6 year old who is a total joy.
These NHS medics cared....they fought very hard for him.
He is a hugely lucky child....and we as his family will be eternally grateful to that skill and dedication
As a mother I can fully understand Archie's mother's fight for his life. It is a hugely emotive situation but I can also understand that medics don't give up the fight for a child lightly
Sadly we'll never know if the decision was the right one but transferring him to a hospice and all that would involve may have caused him anxiety that he was unable to express....with the same eventual outcome.
They are dammed if they do and dammed if they don't so I also have some sympathy for those medics who have had their work splashed over the media throughout the country.
I often think once a patient gets past the GP gatekeepers and into the hands of an emergency team something different kicks in....
I cannot judge this case but the whole situation is heartbreaking.....and one sadly endured by others quietly behind closed doors.
I find it difficult to define "patient's rights" in circumstances like little Archie's.....
I do on the other hand feel that as patients many of us are reduced to little more that numbers on a screen to be dealt with by GPs in 10 minute slots, where vital clues are missed...we suffer! Sometimes for decades.
Err... I feel desperately sorry for the family in this case and others like it. But, the parents took this to every last legal challenge possible. Do we not believe that the judges were able to make fair and reasonable decisions based on the facts while weighing up the family's wishes and balance of probabilities for the child and what was in his best interests?
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Pulse article on the dangers of Medicine by numbers..
