December 14, 2011
How doctors die
Ken Murray, MD, is Clinical Assistant Professor of Family Medicine at USC. These are his observations:
It’s not a frequent topic of discussion, but doctors die, too. And they don’t die like the rest of us. What’s unusual about them is not how much treatment they get compared to most Americans, but how little. For all the time they spend fending off the deaths of others, they tend to be fairly serene when faced with death themselves. They know exactly what is going to happen, they know the choices, and they generally have access to any sort of medical care they could want. But they go gently. [...]
To administer medical care that makes people suffer is anguishing. Physicians are trained to gather information without revealing any of their own feelings, but in private, among fellow doctors, they’ll vent. “How can anyone do that to their family members?” they’ll ask. I suspect it’s one reason physicians have higher rates of alcohol abuse and depression than professionals in most other fields. I know it’s one reason I stopped participating in hospital care for the last 10 years of my practice.
How has it come to this — that doctors administer so much care that they wouldn’t want for themselves? The simple, or not-so-simple, answer is this: patients, doctors, and the system.
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I look forward to reading this, Kelsey. It’s one of my “things.”
I hear you, Sheila. This is one of my “things” too.
My parents are a doctor and nurse respectively and both would like to donate their bodies to science. They both agree that they would not like any medical intervention to keep them living longer. Also, my dad has tendencies to not get medical attention when needed. I was a day away from being admitted to a hospital with pneumonia, as both parents thought I just had an upper respiratory infection. I’d like to see an article about children of medical professionals and their thoughts about dying.
We should do a dear clusterflock what are your things, but do you think people would know what we were talking about?
Erica, I appreciate your candor here. I wasn’t raised by doctors, but I can relate to your frustration with feeling like your illnesses have not been taken seriously. Like your life isn’t valued enough to be defended.
People wouldn’t have a clue, Deron.
Knowing something was wrong mentally and not having that validated as a teen and then again as a college student was enough for me to have no interest in bearing children.
Erica, I understand that lack of validation. It can be eradicating. You still have the validation in you.
Yesterday’s NYT featured an article touching on these matters of living and dying: When Care Is Worth It, Even If End Is Death.
Thank you, Sheila. I’ll have to think about it. When my brother was diagnosed with his terminal ailment, he passed five weeks later. Was his belief nothing could be done? Or did he just not want to try. Was he ready to be done? The doctors at hand, (I could see it in their faces) knew. I think he read their faces, too. He let himself go.