Thursday, October 15, 2009

End of Life Care

Death is inevitable and we must accept this fact as true in order for us to live comfortably and with the knowledge that we will be taken care of when the end of our life arrives.  Jane Brody spoke both in her interview and during her speech at USI about the importance of accepting death and making sure us and our loved ones are prepared for what will happen when death is closely approaching. 

In her speech, Jane Brody mentioned the significance the advancement of medicine and technology has played on our acceptance and view of death.  In recent years, medicine has been able to do so much more to try and save those who are sick and alleviate their suffering.  Because of this advancement in technology, the loved ones of the sick are less likely to accept death and want doctors to do absolutely everything possible to save them.  Jane Brody commented that this practice has made it more difficult to deal with or see death; we think death can now be delayed causing us to not want to deal with or accept it.  Brody said that we need to embrace death and be prepared for death to come.  She said we can do this by preparing living wills, assigning a health care agent, and making sure we know where the important documents are.

My family went through a similar situation where we did not want to deal with death that was quickly approaching.  In February 2006, my grandpa suffered a major aortic aneurism and was rushed to the ICU.  His condition worsened, he suffered strokes and the doctors said he would never be able to walk or talk again.  He could not move his arms, only his head.  This was a horrible sight to have to witness because my grandpa was a tall, strong man who I had always known to be healthy and agile.  My mom, her sisters and brother, and my grandma had an especially hard time dealing with this news and wanted to make sure the doctors would do anything they possibly could to save him and make him the man he was.  They were not ready to accept his death and wanted to prevent it.  After 25 days in the hospital, my grandpa passed away.  This news devastated our whole family.  They could not accept his death and had a hard time getting over it.  After a few months of grieving, my mom finally admitted that as much as she would like her dad to still be around, she knew he would not be happy living in a “vegetable like” state.  She finally accepted that medicine could only do so far to save him, and that she could not rely on it to prevent death.

No comments:

Post a Comment