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.
Zal Press: Mr Patient Commando – Who’s important?
Guest blogger, Zal Press, created Patient Commando to give patients' stories a 'voice'. Pictured here in his 'teach about Crohn's' lab coat, he shares his thoughts on ont of Best Endings topics: Who's important to you? Who’s important in my end-of-life plan?...
Allow Natural Death
Dying, death and the evasive language we use Euphemisms for dying and death abound. But what about the words used when telling someone – anyone – that death is near (‘near’ being a relative term). You’re dying may be the hardest words – right up there with ‘I’m sorry’...
Funerals: rites, rituals and traditions
We’ve been sending off our loved (or not so loved) ones since the beginning of time. While our End is always the same (dead is dead, however the end may have come) the rites, rituals and traditions take on as many different forms as there are cultures. Long-standing...
Veteran’s Story: Palliative Care adds 6 years of life
Veteran Jim Cooper came to Palliative Care to die. Instead, he got 6 years of life. For many, Palliative Care is a scary term: it equals dying and death. Few who feel this way would think of admitting themselves to a Palliative Care Program. But that's just...
