Medical advancement has taken us far in living longer…but, as this article shows, from a physician’s perspective, it’s the quality of our lives that has suffered.
Our unrealistic views of death, through a doctor’s eyes
By Craig Bowron
I know where this phone call is going. I’m on the hospital wards, and a physician in the emergency room downstairs is talking to me about an elderly patient who needs to be admitted to the hospital. The patient is new to me, but the story is familiar: He has several chronic conditions — heart failure, weak kidneys, anemia, Parkinson’s and mild dementia — all tentatively held in check by a fistful of medications. He has been falling more frequently, and his appetite has fallen off, too. Now a stroke threatens to topple this house of cards.
