Modern Medicine can keep you alive
Machines, medications and man-made parts: modern medicine continues to find and develop life-saving and life-prolonging interventions.
Advancements in heart research include:
- Bypass surgery
- Man-made implantable cardiac devices like pacemakers
When organs fail, there’s dialysis for kidney failure, and transplants for kidney, lung, liver and heart. Cancer continues to be researched, and survival rates and life expectancy has greatly increased. For neurological (brain) illness and injury, medications and interventions are emerging, and rehab helps with increased function. Even infections – which were regularly the cause of death in past generations – are now treated with antibiotics.
However, as the body winds down, so-called ‘Heroic Measures’ may do more harm than intended. CPR (Cardio-Pulmonary Resuscitation) Breathing Machines (ventilators), Feeding tubes and specific medications can be considered Heroic Measures or seem more like Futile Treatment. When making decisions about any of these, it can help to understand the longer-term results and possible complications.
Organ and Tissue Donation: a learning experience
Donna Renzetti (left, standing) Vice President, Corporate Services and Chief Financial Officer at West Park Healthcare Centre came in on a Saturday to make sure there were plenty of chairs at the ready for the Trillium Gift of Life Network (TGLN) presentation on organ...
Gaps in End of Life information: a layman’s point of view
With Mary Ito, host of FreshAir: celebrating after our interview on CBC Radio about what this 'layman' brings to conversations about end of life Click to listen: 11 minutes
Obituaries and those who write them
I'm noticing new approaches to obituaries Defying a history of somber and factual, I'm seeing welcomed injections of humour - including obits written by the deceased. Before, of course. This means leaving blanks as you can see from above picture. Walter George Bruhl...
A mother, a daughter and Ovarian Cancer: “Love you so much.”
When Karen Greve Young gave me the hot-off-the press copy of ‘Love you so much: a shared memoir’ she explained: “Sometime into my mother’s treatment for ovarian cancer, we decided we wanted to do something meaningful.” Told by both daughter and mother, the title of...
