Thank you for sharing WM and your experience. At least WM was able to express her wishes and was "brave" enough to say "please just keep me comfortable". Many times the patient wants everything and the
"care team" obliges. Such a sad circumstance for a 52 year old
Acknowledging the suffering inflicted in a hospital and realizing when gains are marginal is a very important lesson.
But be vigilant! Allow me to teach another lesson, which took me many years to learn. To be in acute pain is to be coerced. Coerced to seek relief by any means possible. I have met some patients who begged for death while in pain, only to recover from the acute condition (misery inflicted by injury, illness, or intervention) and be grateful to have persevered. This is certainly not as common as scenario you describe.
I did not fully comprehend this “coercion” until leaving training and seeing grateful patients 6 months after in clinic.
Maybe the lesson is to treat the pain adequately so that patients are not coerced by this.
This is best captured by the great neurologist from Columbia, Linda Lewis, who taught generations of students and residents the importance of “don’t just do something, stand there”
Thank you for sharing WM and your experience. At least WM was able to express her wishes and was "brave" enough to say "please just keep me comfortable". Many times the patient wants everything and the
"care team" obliges. Such a sad circumstance for a 52 year old
Acknowledging the suffering inflicted in a hospital and realizing when gains are marginal is a very important lesson.
But be vigilant! Allow me to teach another lesson, which took me many years to learn. To be in acute pain is to be coerced. Coerced to seek relief by any means possible. I have met some patients who begged for death while in pain, only to recover from the acute condition (misery inflicted by injury, illness, or intervention) and be grateful to have persevered. This is certainly not as common as scenario you describe.
I did not fully comprehend this “coercion” until leaving training and seeing grateful patients 6 months after in clinic.
Maybe the lesson is to treat the pain adequately so that patients are not coerced by this.
This is best captured by the great neurologist from Columbia, Linda Lewis, who taught generations of students and residents the importance of “don’t just do something, stand there”