During the video, one thing they talked about was how there is a sole person chosen who gets to make the decision about what to do if a person they are close to is in a condition that could involve death whether it be from the person saying it themselves or the person chosen to make the decisions. This is a hard choice for them to make. They worry about if it is the right choice to make or whether it is the wrong choice by choosing to do it so soon and not wait longer. This is something I have never personally experienced but am seeing someone experience this right now. My sister and I have a friend we are both close with and her family has been going through something like this since two weeks ago. Without going into too much detail due to respect for her family, they are experiencing a member of their family being in critical condition to where they have been asked what they want to do in regards to the condition he is in.
Chelsey, I agree with what you said about it being a hard choice to make, especially if one family member is the one who has to make the decision or communicate the wishes of their family member. This could create a lot of tension between other relatives if they don't all agree, as it did in the video with a couple of the families, and the stress it puts on the family is something that can be very difficult.
In a situation like those in the film would it be better to live for a short time, or risk sooner death for a chance of a longer life, with those you love.
I would say that those in the film lived as long as a life as they could. For instance, many of those patients tried many different types of treatments and just seemed to not be getting better. So, in my opinion I would say that those patients fought a long and hard battle but, because of the outcome I would cause them to die over more suffering.
I would have to agree with Rachel. The people on the video had exhausted almost every possible treatment, even trying treatments multiple times. In the end, they all passed away. They wanted to survive sure, but they did so at a tremendous physical, mental, and emotional cost to not only themselves, but they family and friends as well.
The area is so gray because if there was a 10% chance to live I think everyone would take it and hope for the best. Therefore, when your the 90% that fail you have already gone through so much suffering you don't want to quit now or give in and accept defeat or death. On the other hand, if you just refuse treatment all together I think your family and others may always wonder if you would have been that 10% that made it. Its just a very hard decision to make with no clear answer
The fighting these patients went through in the Facing Death video was incredible to me. Though they suffered, they fought, and they fought for a long time because they had the hope that they might overcome their illness.
The most surprising thing about the video facing death was a comment one of the doctors had made in the video. She stated that death has to do with the people around the person dying then the person who is dying. I find this statement true in the fact that the thought of your family dying in comfort with no pain is more reassuring to the family watching. The person dying cannot express to the doctors and the nurses how they are feeling so who really knows what their death was like to them. The experience I have to the video facing death was when my Aunt was battling cancer. Her fight was up and down. She would get better to the point where she never looked sick then she would get sick again. The cancer kept coming back and after a year battle she had finally given up and eventually passed. Watching her go through the cancer getting better then getting worse again was similar to the families in the video. The patients would show signs of breakthrough in their health then the next day fall behind again. The video was eye opening to the tough decisions that families must make to hold on to the hope that their loved one will make a recovery or are they to ill to survive.
Emily, this statement struck me as interesting as well. I had never thought about that until the doctor said it on the video. However, I would have to agree with her. The remaining family and friends holds the way the person passed as a memory. It provides condolence to them to know they passed peacefully, rather than painfully. I know this has comforted me in the past when dealing with family member deaths. But I find myself wandering if the way of passing really is more important to the family than to the actual person who passed. After all, many o the people who pass from chronic diseases have been suffering for a very long time. They are very strong people for dealing with all the pain. So if the people who pass have already been i so much pain for so long, their death isn't really any more painful than what they have gone through. So I think the idea of a peaceful death is more for the remaining family and friends than it is for the actual person who dies.
The most surprising thing about this video was that it made me get a bit teary eyed when in the beginning I thought I wouldn't. The reason why I got so teary eyed during this video was because it made me sad to see the not only the patients suffer tremendously but, also the love ones around them as well. Another thing that caught my eye was something that Albert's wife said. The thing that she said was "Why give up? What will that do?" This question really made me think hard. For instance, Albert went through many treatments that seemed to not work for his condition and just seemed to end up making him suffer more and more. Therefore, I wouldn't say it's giving up because Albert and his family/friends tried many different outcomes before the big decision of letting him go. Overall, this video was very eye opening to me because it made me realize that making a decision before the condition gets worse is better than actually waiting to make that decision at the point of time.
I agree that it is a hard choice to make, but I believe that people need to talk about these kind of things so the family will know what to do if the situation would arise. And the situation he went through was terrible in the fact that we, the viewers, became attached to the people and what they were going through.
I completely agree that not only was it difficult enough to see the patients suffering, but also seeing the families suffering made it worse. I also think that it is inspiring that Albert did not want to give up even after all that he had been through. But in this particular situation, I feel as if his wife handled this extremely difficult situation rather well, because she took into consideration what her husband wanted, and also did not give up on him because they did try many procedures to help save him.
I agree completely that a patient like Albert shouldn't feel as though they have given up. That mentality makes it seem like death is just a challenge that is meant to be overcome and that failing to survive a life threatening disease is somehow a failure. He didn't give up at any point in the entire process. He tried every treatment that he could. That is not someone who has given up on life. I also agree that it is important to make a decision before the worse happens.
I agree that it is such a hard decision to make. It is something that should be talked about beforehand that way if something tragic does happen, each person is on an agreement about how to go about the situation and so the family know the wishes of the person who is placed in the situation.
The thing that caught my attention from the video is when one of the doctors stated that the people who survive those kind of things or who are hanging onto life by ventilators and other forms life preserving machinery were "broken survivors." I thought that it held true because although the people were barely holding onto life (even though they are in fact survivors), they were doing so a a tremendous cost. The quality of their life, the effects on their spouses and other family members, and the effect on their own emotions was devastating. Yes, the people are alive and continue to wear out every possible road, but they seem to pay such a high price. One woman in the video said "why give up?" and that when the doctors say there is nothing they can do then that is them telling you you are dying. But, to me, just not doing treatments is an option. Treatments can be so painful and have serous adverse effects (just look at the man who had lost over 100 pounds during his cancer treatment and had a stroke because of his bone marrow transplant). I think that after enduring these rigorous treatments and suffering what they have, that not doing treatments is not to e looked at as giving up, but rather as just another option to be considered.
I totally agree that it is not giving up to stop treatments. If they aren't working it can be cruel to continue the treatments. The pain of treatments may be worth it if they cure you. However, if after multiple treatments and no improvement you are just causing more damage and living what little time you have left in unnecessary pain. Also without spending so much time with treatments or in a hospital you can spend more time with your family before you pass away.
Tonya, I agree with the last couple of sentences you wrote, about how the treatments many of these patients go through is so hard on their body. One has to weight the options of do I continue treatment and have worse quality of life but live or do I discontinue treatment and live of the rest of my life to the fullest? Either way it is a tough decision.
This video is fantastic because these are very serious issues that the majority of people are not prepared for. Its hard to imagine that you might some day be in charge of making life or death decisions for those you love especially if you do not know their true intentions. There was a case in the ICU last year where a man was on the ventilator so long that his limbs were rotting and his bed sores were so bad that you could see his tailbone. I believe as healthcare providers and as human beings that it should never get to that point. The family was making all the decisions for him and I doubt that anyone would want it to be taken that far. These are the dangers of not talking or writing down your intentions when that time comes.
Brent, I totally agree with what you said about taking it too far and keeping someone alive artificially for so long. One thing that struck me in the video was that more and more technology is out there but is it truly helping or is it actually hurting people in some cases because it is often dragging out the inevitable. Death can be put off but never truly avoided, and it is important to know how far your family members want to be kept alive before they are suffering more than being helped by the technology.
The video was excellent if incredibly hard to watch. But in a way that is good because death is hard to talk about/ deal with but it needs to be done. Death is a part of the human experience and everyone should think about what they would want done if they were in a serious situation. Personally I don't think I could go through those treatments multiple times because of the damage it could cause. I know I wouldn't want to live like that. Even though death is painful, family's can find comfort in that the pain is over. But if something goes wrong with the treatments or the effects of treatment which can be costly as well, all your family sees is you in more pain. So the video raises some important questions and leads you to figure out your own answers.
I do agree that this video was good to watch. It shows how people struggle with how to make right decisions and how many times people do decide to go through treatments just with a hope that they will work. Although it is different for each person it was good to see how families struggle with it especially if you haven't experienced something like that before.
Robbie makes a great point regarding the family finding comfort knowing the pain is over. The patient with the girlfriend struck out in particular to me. She saw the pain he was in and just wanted to do what she thought was best for him by stopping treatment. From personal experience, I know Hospice is a great option for situations like these where the patient and the families needs can be taken care of.
Robbie, I too thought that this video was a very good intro into this class. Especially due to how difficult this topic is to discuss, the open and direct nature of this video in regards to this topic is a good way to open the class's minds to discussion. I believe your thought process about continuing life, despite there being no hope of recovery, is similar to mine. I can't say what is a right or wrong way to believe, just as no one else can, but I can say what I think I would want for myself, and I agree with your stance on that.
When the video first came on we all knew that it would be sad and that in the end the patients were going to die, but a part of me wanted some of them to get through it. The video made the viewer become more attached to the patients because they went into depth about their medical history and introduced their families and seeing their reactions to what was happening to the ones they loved. I was surprised that the doctors were able to keep their composure so well when talking about death to the families and to the person who was interviewing them. If something were to happen to me I know I would change my mind on what I would want. As of now, if I was brain-dead and a vent was keeping me alive I wouldn't want to stay that way and prolong my death. Also staying alive longer when there is nothing I can do would kill my parents. If I was diagnosed with something and given only a short time to live I would want to do things I've always wanted, like the movie The Bucket List. The closest personal experience I've had would be with my grandpa, my junior year of high school. He had been losing a lot of weight and had been short of breath so he finally went to the doctor. He ended up in the hospital and all he kept saying to everyone who visited him was that he wanted to go home and be in peace and not die in the hospital. But unfortunately before that could happen he passed away there. I don't know all that was going on with him, but I know it is still a touchy subject with my dad. So from my experience I know I would want to go home and spend time feeling comfortable in a place that I knew instead of a hospital.
I agree Diane with your point of wanting to do all the things you wanted to do in life if you only had a short time to live. I would receive the treatment necessary to be able to do the things I wanted to before I'd die but I would try my hardest to do a bunch of fun things before time runs out.
The Frontline video viewed in class was one that I am sure brought up many internal feelings we ourselves have. For example, how would you respond to the power of having the choice to either prolong or end another's life? I do believe this is a convoluted question that may never have a good or justified answer. That being said I do believe it is very important for us to value life. Also, knowing that this is a event that we would certainty hope to never come across we must understand that the reality is it can happen to any of us. I have never experienced having this choice, but I could honestly never imagine the fear of having the responsibility of deciding when enough is enough. The video caused me to reflect and to imagine a time where that responsibility fell on me. The fact that although I have never had to, but that the video caused me to look internally is something I did not expect.
Alex, your view of the video is similar to mine it is a difficult choice and it never has a good answer. I agree that life needs to be valued because it can be taken away quickly.
Alex, I like that you brought out that this issue is not as far away from any of us as it seems. Though it may not apply to people now, it certainly could, as you said, happen at any time. I think you would agree that when this happens is not the time to START thinking about this topic, but rather we should be prepared, especially coming out of this class, should that time arise in our futures. I agree that having this choice in your hands is a daunting thing. There really is no good answer. However, as I pointed out in my post to this prompt, I think it is easy to confuse the fact that the disease or injury, whatever it may be, and not necessarily our decision will be the ultimate deciding factor of a loved one's fate. And as you said, where is that point where enough is enough? Where does it switch over to death being inevitable and all efforts to fight it futile? Like you say in your post, it is a hard question to answer, especially when we want to stay as far away from the topic as possible.
In the video, one patient's story involved their proxy and how she determined what decision would be made for the patient. It made me think about how hard of a decision that must be to make for a loved one in that predicament. When a patient is that close to passing away, I think it's important to make decisions based on comfort of the patient. The doctors said in the video that when the illnesses become to overwhelming, their main concern becomes comfort care. I haven't had to make a decision as difficult as this, so I hope by the end of the semester I have a better idea of what I would do in that particular situation.
I agree completely that in many of the situations presented in this video the families and the doctors of the patients should have been focusing on palliative care rather than aggressive treatments trying to battle the diseases. At some point those in charge of the patients care should realize that they aren't going to improve and that they need to be comforted at this point.
I agree as to how difficult it has to be to make such an important decision. Also the proxy must also face opinions from other family members which makes things even more difficult. For example in the video, the situation when the man had the girlfriend, yet the proxy was the sister and the ill man was telling them both different things about how he felt. I can't imagine being the one to make a tough choice and other members be disappointed in my decision but in the end you just have to do what is right for the patient.
In the video, they discussed that the technology today has gotten so advanced that they can almost always keep people alive. The only thing is that this technology can in most cases only prolong death and not actually heal or save the patients completely. That also depends on each patients situation because they are all different. Death is inevitable, so the question is do you continue supporting life and when do you not support it? The situations become very difficult for the patients and their families because people are deciding on if someone gets to live or die. Most of the times the patients are unconscious and cannot make these decisions, so the decision then falls on the family members. The doctors and families then have to weigh their options, is the pain and suffering worth it, what is the risk of death from procedure and what is the risk from disease, and what would the patient want? Some patients want to keep fighting and others want to let go. No two situations are the same. These decisions become so difficult to make, and no person should actually have to deal with these situations, but it does happen everyday. I have not previously thought of what I would want if I were in this situation, but this video has caused me to think about what I would want. Hopefully by the end of the semester I will have a better idea of what I would want.
It is good to hear that more and more people are thinking about what they want to happen if that tragic day should come (hoping it doesn't!). It really is amazing far technology has come though isn't it? You really do bring up some important questions that we are hopefully able to delve deeper into as the semester goes on.
What surprised me most in the Facing Death video was how different family members of the dying people had such different opinions on the care and treatments of their loved ones. Often times more than one person was involved in making the decision to end someone's life by taking them off a ventilator or taking out a feeding tube and some family members just wanted the dying family member to be out of their pain and misery while others wanted to hold onto them and keep them alive for as long as possible. It is so hard to know what the person truly wants, especially if they can no longer communicate. Even if they made their wishes clear prior to having something happen to them, what you feel you would want when you are perfectly healthy could be vastly different from what you want when you are in intensive care at a hospital and on the verge of death. This video also made me question whether or not death could be better than life if the condition is serious enough and also how much/for how long should we use the life support technology that exists until the patient is truly only kept alive by the myriad of machines. I really have had very few experiences related to the issues in Facing Death, although I now realize how important it is to make sure to make my end of life preferences clear to my parents because anything could happen and you never know when you could end up in a life-threatening situation where important medical decisions need to be made. In my future in the healthcare industry I will probably also face difficult experiences like the physicians in the film, so I hope this class will help prepare me better for such situations.
The thing that I found most surprising from the video was how unprepared some people were to become a healthcare proxy for their loved ones. They seemed to have little idea as to what the person would want in the situations that they were placed in. I would have thought that when a person names a healthcare proxy they would sit down with them and discuss every foreseeable situation so that they would know exactly what that person would want if they became unable to make a decision for themselves. Just a simple conversation could have made the lives of the patients, their families, and their doctors. Obviously this couldn't always happen but in some of these cases where the dying process seemed to go on for an extended period of time a conversation of this nature seems only natural. Fortunately I have never been in a situation similar to any of those shown in the video. I've only had a couple extended family members die and none of them ever ended up in a situation like those in the video.
It really is shocking to see how unprepared people are in these situations. What's worse than that is that they then have to make those life changing decisions during such a stressful and emotional time in their lives. More than anything though, it is sad.
What surprised me most about the Facing Death video was really the denial some of the patients had with regards to their diseases. The one that stood out to me was the 40 something year old father who kept believing that he was going to go home for good. When faced with death, it was like he tried to act like it wasn't there. Maybe he thought if he didn't acknowledge it, then maybe he wouldn't have to deal with it. It seemed like his wife accepted his fate even before he did. The big thing that really hit me was when he kept telling his wife that he was going to beat the disease and go home. At that point it didn't seem like denial but rather he didn't want to give up because of his family. Such actions/statements truly deserve respect and I hope he now rests in peace.
I have one experience relating to this video that actually sticks out it my mind and that is that all of my siblings have sat down with our parents and talked about what we would like done if put in a situation like the ones presented in the video. All of us knows what the other would like done should anything life threatening happen to us. We did this so there is never any confusion or fighting should that tragic day come. Other than that I have not really been exposed to dying that much.
Craig, I like that you pointed out the denial in the father's story. While all of the stories were hard to watch, this is the one that brought me to tears. I am the type of person that always pictures myself in the situation that others are facing, and I cannot imagine the emotional toll put on this father and his wife.The father wanted to ignore his disease in hopes that he could beat it and be with his family again. His wife, however, wanted him to accept it and be at peace with it. When he looked his wife in the eyes and said that he was going to get through it...that's when I lost it. The will to overcome tragedy can be a powerful thing, and sometimes it can make situations like this down-right complicated.
The most surprising part of facing death to me was the families and how tough it was to determine how to handle the care of the dying family member. Specifically the situation with the girlfriend of the man that was dying and the sister. The girlfriend said the dying man wanted this type of care but the caregiver, the sister, told doctors she had never heard her brother tell her those things. That situation is extremely tough to handle and could be something that tears a family apart. I have experience with my family. Specifically both my grandmas, I remember my family talking about care for them and what both of my grandma's wanted for the end of their lives.
The most surprising part of the video to me was the personal guilt and responsibility that the families of the patients took on themselves when given the difficult decisions they had to face. I expected them to be hesitant about being the one to make the decision, but it was interesting to me how that some of the relatives shifted the cause of their loved ones' future death from the disease to being based on their decision alone. Perhaps my favorite quote from this video was when one of the physicians stated that they could artificially keep a patient alive in a suspended-like state for years with the equipment they now have, but that this is only "prolonging the inevitable." To the physician, they can clearly see how that the disease would be to blame for the person's death. To the family, when they are given the decision on what to do, they cannot see it this way. They see it as they would be the reason for the death, and therefore choose to prolong this horrendous existence of medically-induced comas and ventilators. In my freshman year of college, my great-grandma (who was 87 at the time) fell and broke her hip. She had late-stage dementia and was almost completely non-verbal. She never went home from the hospital following her fall. She was unable to move without pain, much less walk. She could not speak. Eventually she was sleeping all of the day, only opening her eyes when the nurse came in and moved her to change her bed clothes or something of that sort. It soon became clear that her body was shutting down. She stopped eating, and eventually, due to the progress of her dementia, stopped waking up at all, even when moved or touched. She was on a morphine drip for the pain in her hip. When asked about a feeding tube, our family decided to decline. We did not see the benefit of artificially keeping her alive for however long, especially knowing she would not come out of the hospital due to her injuries and the severity of her dementia, not to mention she was no longer even conscious any part of the day. When she passed away, it was hard on the entire family, but we did have comfort knowing that she passed surrounded by her family, comfortable, peacefully, and without a dramatic, years-long process that would have been worse on everyone, including her.
Cody, I agree with what you stated in the first couple of lines, where many times the families have the responsibility to make these life and death decisions. There was a part of the video were two sisters agreed on how to precede with their mother's treatment and one sister disagreed on what to do. This goes to show that making these decisions is never easy and there is never a correct answer.
During the Facing Death video, a part I did not particularly agree with was the woman who was on a ventilator for over an entire year. Just think about it, being hooked up to a machine fighting for your life. The suffering many of these patients go through it unbelievable. Though the families of the patient want their loved one to stay alive as much as possible, I think there comes a point in life where they must realize that the quality of life they are living becomes unrealistic, even if they do survive, what type of life would they live? Family members must make some tough choices, and deciding whether or not to take a patient off a ventilator or a respirator is one of the hardest choices I can think of. If you decide to take them off the ventilator, will they die right away? Or will they get better? The family and sometimes the doctors can not give you a right answer.
I agree that this would be one of the hardest situations a family could be faced with. There comes a point when the quality of life becomes so poor that is there really a point in keeping them alive? I honestly think I would feel guilty prolonging the death of a loved one if they were in a state where they couldn't even function on their own. Having to see a family member suffer like that would be unimaginable.
Healthcare providers sit in a very tough spot. We all have our own ethical opinions, but as a professional, it is not your place to force your beliefs on your patients or their families. How thin is the line between giving rational, medically sound advice and telling your patient what you think they should do based off of personal morals or opinions? As Emily said, doctors do not always have the right answers because sometimes there is no definitive right answer.
Tori, I completely agree with what you and Emily have said. It is hard to think that even though we know in our hearts what is right still might not be right for any given family in any given situation. I also think that it is tough not being able to share our opinion with the family, we are there to guide the patient and treat the patient as nurses.
I think it was surprising to see how each doctor handled the situation a bit differently. While some doctors encouraged patients to keep fighting, other doctors told the patients it was okay to quit and give up, but how do the doctors really know what the right thing to say is? I also thought it was interesting to see how in denial some of the patients were and how hard it was for the family members to have to make that life or death decision for their loved one.
I recently had an experience facing death a few months ago when my grandmother passed. They discovered she had lung cancer and they knew she wouldn't have much time left. We talked it over with her and she decided she wanted to be a DNR, and although it was hard to accept the fact that if at any time something happened to her they wouldn't help her and it would end, but we knew it was what she wanted so we had to accept it. Its hard dealing with a dying family member, but I am thankful that my grandma made her own decisions and we were not forced to make the decision for her.
Im sorry about your lost, as i have no previous experience with the subject i truly do not understand the difficult situation your family experience. I felt the need to comment on this blog post because i believe that you were in one of the hardest situations in not being able to do anything to help which worries me.
The most surprising thing to me about the video was that it seemed that although the diseases were different and situations were different it seemed as if most families just wanted to prolong the time the had with their loved ones dying. I have no prior occurrence with death (knock on wood) i would act the same was as most if i was conflicted with it.
During the video, one thing they talked about was how there is a sole person chosen who gets to make the decision about what to do if a person they are close to is in a condition that could involve death whether it be from the person saying it themselves or the person chosen to make the decisions. This is a hard choice for them to make. They worry about if it is the right choice to make or whether it is the wrong choice by choosing to do it so soon and not wait longer. This is something I have never personally experienced but am seeing someone experience this right now. My sister and I have a friend we are both close with and her family has been going through something like this since two weeks ago. Without going into too much detail due to respect for her family, they are experiencing a member of their family being in critical condition to where they have been asked what they want to do in regards to the condition he is in.
ReplyDeleteChelsey, I agree with what you said about it being a hard choice to make, especially if one family member is the one who has to make the decision or communicate the wishes of their family member. This could create a lot of tension between other relatives if they don't all agree, as it did in the video with a couple of the families, and the stress it puts on the family is something that can be very difficult.
DeleteIn a situation like those in the film would it be better to live for a short time, or risk sooner death for a chance of a longer life, with those you love.
ReplyDeleteI would say that those in the film lived as long as a life as they could. For instance, many of those patients tried many different types of treatments and just seemed to not be getting better. So, in my opinion I would say that those patients fought a long and hard battle but, because of the outcome I would cause them to die over more suffering.
DeleteI would have to agree with Rachel. The people on the video had exhausted almost every possible treatment, even trying treatments multiple times. In the end, they all passed away. They wanted to survive sure, but they did so at a tremendous physical, mental, and emotional cost to not only themselves, but they family and friends as well.
DeleteThe area is so gray because if there was a 10% chance to live I think everyone would take it and hope for the best. Therefore, when your the 90% that fail you have already gone through so much suffering you don't want to quit now or give in and accept defeat or death. On the other hand, if you just refuse treatment all together I think your family and others may always wonder if you would have been that 10% that made it. Its just a very hard decision to make with no clear answer
DeleteThe fighting these patients went through in the Facing Death video was incredible to me. Though they suffered, they fought, and they fought for a long time because they had the hope that they might overcome their illness.
DeleteThe most surprising thing about the video facing death was a comment one of the doctors had made in the video. She stated that death has to do with the people around the person dying then the person who is dying. I find this statement true in the fact that the thought of your family dying in comfort with no pain is more reassuring to the family watching. The person dying cannot express to the doctors and the nurses how they are feeling so who really knows what their death was like to them.
ReplyDeleteThe experience I have to the video facing death was when my Aunt was battling cancer. Her fight was up and down. She would get better to the point where she never looked sick then she would get sick again. The cancer kept coming back and after a year battle she had finally given up and eventually passed. Watching her go through the cancer getting better then getting worse again was similar to the families in the video. The patients would show signs of breakthrough in their health then the next day fall behind again. The video was eye opening to the tough decisions that families must make to hold on to the hope that their loved one will make a recovery or are they to ill to survive.
Emily, this statement struck me as interesting as well. I had never thought about that until the doctor said it on the video. However, I would have to agree with her. The remaining family and friends holds the way the person passed as a memory. It provides condolence to them to know they passed peacefully, rather than painfully. I know this has comforted me in the past when dealing with family member deaths. But I find myself wandering if the way of passing really is more important to the family than to the actual person who passed. After all, many o the people who pass from chronic diseases have been suffering for a very long time. They are very strong people for dealing with all the pain. So if the people who pass have already been i so much pain for so long, their death isn't really any more painful than what they have gone through. So I think the idea of a peaceful death is more for the remaining family and friends than it is for the actual person who dies.
DeleteThe most surprising thing about this video was that it made me get a bit teary eyed when in the beginning I thought I wouldn't. The reason why I got so teary eyed during this video was because it made me sad to see the not only the patients suffer tremendously but, also the love ones around them as well. Another thing that caught my eye was something that Albert's wife said. The thing that she said was "Why give up? What will that do?" This question really made me think hard. For instance, Albert went through many treatments that seemed to not work for his condition and just seemed to end up making him suffer more and more. Therefore, I wouldn't say it's giving up because Albert and his family/friends tried many different outcomes before the big decision of letting him go. Overall, this video was very eye opening to me because it made me realize that making a decision before the condition gets worse is better than actually waiting to make that decision at the point of time.
ReplyDeleteI agree that it is a hard choice to make, but I believe that people need to talk about these kind of things so the family will know what to do if the situation would arise. And the situation he went through was terrible in the fact that we, the viewers, became attached to the people and what they were going through.
DeleteI completely agree that not only was it difficult enough to see the patients suffering, but also seeing the families suffering made it worse. I also think that it is inspiring that Albert did not want to give up even after all that he had been through. But in this particular situation, I feel as if his wife handled this extremely difficult situation rather well, because she took into consideration what her husband wanted, and also did not give up on him because they did try many procedures to help save him.
DeleteI agree completely that a patient like Albert shouldn't feel as though they have given up. That mentality makes it seem like death is just a challenge that is meant to be overcome and that failing to survive a life threatening disease is somehow a failure. He didn't give up at any point in the entire process. He tried every treatment that he could. That is not someone who has given up on life. I also agree that it is important to make a decision before the worse happens.
DeleteI agree that it is such a hard decision to make. It is something that should be talked about beforehand that way if something tragic does happen, each person is on an agreement about how to go about the situation and so the family know the wishes of the person who is placed in the situation.
DeleteThe thing that caught my attention from the video is when one of the doctors stated that the people who survive those kind of things or who are hanging onto life by ventilators and other forms life preserving machinery were "broken survivors." I thought that it held true because although the people were barely holding onto life (even though they are in fact survivors), they were doing so a a tremendous cost. The quality of their life, the effects on their spouses and other family members, and the effect on their own emotions was devastating. Yes, the people are alive and continue to wear out every possible road, but they seem to pay such a high price. One woman in the video said "why give up?" and that when the doctors say there is nothing they can do then that is them telling you you are dying. But, to me, just not doing treatments is an option. Treatments can be so painful and have serous adverse effects (just look at the man who had lost over 100 pounds during his cancer treatment and had a stroke because of his bone marrow transplant). I think that after enduring these rigorous treatments and suffering what they have, that not doing treatments is not to e looked at as giving up, but rather as just another option to be considered.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree that it is not giving up to stop treatments. If they aren't working it can be cruel to continue the treatments. The pain of treatments may be worth it if they cure you. However, if after multiple treatments and no improvement you are just causing more damage and living what little time you have left in unnecessary pain. Also without spending so much time with treatments or in a hospital you can spend more time with your family before you pass away.
DeleteTonya, I agree with the last couple of sentences you wrote, about how the treatments many of these patients go through is so hard on their body. One has to weight the options of do I continue treatment and have worse quality of life but live or do I discontinue treatment and live of the rest of my life to the fullest? Either way it is a tough decision.
DeleteThis video is fantastic because these are very serious issues that the majority of people are not prepared for. Its hard to imagine that you might some day be in charge of making life or death decisions for those you love especially if you do not know their true intentions. There was a case in the ICU last year where a man was on the ventilator so long that his limbs were rotting and his bed sores were so bad that you could see his tailbone. I believe as healthcare providers and as human beings that it should never get to that point. The family was making all the decisions for him and I doubt that anyone would want it to be taken that far. These are the dangers of not talking or writing down your intentions when that time comes.
ReplyDeleteBrent, I totally agree with what you said about taking it too far and keeping someone alive artificially for so long. One thing that struck me in the video was that more and more technology is out there but is it truly helping or is it actually hurting people in some cases because it is often dragging out the inevitable. Death can be put off but never truly avoided, and it is important to know how far your family members want to be kept alive before they are suffering more than being helped by the technology.
DeleteThe video was excellent if incredibly hard to watch. But in a way that is good because death is hard to talk about/ deal with but it needs to be done. Death is a part of the human experience and everyone should think about what they would want done if they were in a serious situation. Personally I don't think I could go through those treatments multiple times because of the damage it could cause. I know I wouldn't want to live like that. Even though death is painful, family's can find comfort in that the pain is over. But if something goes wrong with the treatments or the effects of treatment which can be costly as well, all your family sees is you in more pain. So the video raises some important questions and leads you to figure out your own answers.
ReplyDeleteI do agree that this video was good to watch. It shows how people struggle with how to make right decisions and how many times people do decide to go through treatments just with a hope that they will work. Although it is different for each person it was good to see how families struggle with it especially if you haven't experienced something like that before.
DeleteRobbie makes a great point regarding the family finding comfort knowing the pain is over. The patient with the girlfriend struck out in particular to me. She saw the pain he was in and just wanted to do what she thought was best for him by stopping treatment. From personal experience, I know Hospice is a great option for situations like these where the patient and the families needs can be taken care of.
DeleteRobbie, I too thought that this video was a very good intro into this class. Especially due to how difficult this topic is to discuss, the open and direct nature of this video in regards to this topic is a good way to open the class's minds to discussion. I believe your thought process about continuing life, despite there being no hope of recovery, is similar to mine. I can't say what is a right or wrong way to believe, just as no one else can, but I can say what I think I would want for myself, and I agree with your stance on that.
DeleteWhen the video first came on we all knew that it would be sad and that in the end the patients were going to die, but a part of me wanted some of them to get through it. The video made the viewer become more attached to the patients because they went into depth about their medical history and introduced their families and seeing their reactions to what was happening to the ones they loved. I was surprised that the doctors were able to keep their composure so well when talking about death to the families and to the person who was interviewing them. If something were to happen to me I know I would change my mind on what I would want. As of now, if I was brain-dead and a vent was keeping me alive I wouldn't want to stay that way and prolong my death. Also staying alive longer when there is nothing I can do would kill my parents. If I was diagnosed with something and given only a short time to live I would want to do things I've always wanted, like the movie The Bucket List. The closest personal experience I've had would be with my grandpa, my junior year of high school. He had been losing a lot of weight and had been short of breath so he finally went to the doctor. He ended up in the hospital and all he kept saying to everyone who visited him was that he wanted to go home and be in peace and not die in the hospital. But unfortunately before that could happen he passed away there. I don't know all that was going on with him, but I know it is still a touchy subject with my dad. So from my experience I know I would want to go home and spend time feeling comfortable in a place that I knew instead of a hospital.
ReplyDeleteI agree Diane with your point of wanting to do all the things you wanted to do in life if you only had a short time to live. I would receive the treatment necessary to be able to do the things I wanted to before I'd die but I would try my hardest to do a bunch of fun things before time runs out.
DeleteThe Frontline video viewed in class was one that I am sure brought up many internal feelings we ourselves have. For example, how would you respond to the power of having the choice to either prolong or end another's life? I do believe this is a convoluted question that may never have a good or justified answer. That being said I do believe it is very important for us to value life. Also, knowing that this is a event that we would certainty hope to never come across we must understand that the reality is it can happen to any of us. I have never experienced having this choice, but I could honestly never imagine the fear of having the responsibility of deciding when enough is enough. The video caused me to reflect and to imagine a time where that responsibility fell on me. The fact that although I have never had to, but that the video caused me to look internally is something I did not expect.
ReplyDeleteAlex, your view of the video is similar to mine it is a difficult choice and it never has a good answer. I agree that life needs to be valued because it can be taken away quickly.
DeleteAlex, I like that you brought out that this issue is not as far away from any of us as it seems. Though it may not apply to people now, it certainly could, as you said, happen at any time. I think you would agree that when this happens is not the time to START thinking about this topic, but rather we should be prepared, especially coming out of this class, should that time arise in our futures. I agree that having this choice in your hands is a daunting thing. There really is no good answer. However, as I pointed out in my post to this prompt, I think it is easy to confuse the fact that the disease or injury, whatever it may be, and not necessarily our decision will be the ultimate deciding factor of a loved one's fate. And as you said, where is that point where enough is enough? Where does it switch over to death being inevitable and all efforts to fight it futile? Like you say in your post, it is a hard question to answer, especially when we want to stay as far away from the topic as possible.
DeleteIn the video, one patient's story involved their proxy and how she determined what decision would be made for the patient. It made me think about how hard of a decision that must be to make for a loved one in that predicament. When a patient is that close to passing away, I think it's important to make decisions based on comfort of the patient. The doctors said in the video that when the illnesses become to overwhelming, their main concern becomes comfort care. I haven't had to make a decision as difficult as this, so I hope by the end of the semester I have a better idea of what I would do in that particular situation.
ReplyDeleteI agree completely that in many of the situations presented in this video the families and the doctors of the patients should have been focusing on palliative care rather than aggressive treatments trying to battle the diseases. At some point those in charge of the patients care should realize that they aren't going to improve and that they need to be comforted at this point.
DeleteI agree as to how difficult it has to be to make such an important decision. Also the proxy must also face opinions from other family members which makes things even more difficult. For example in the video, the situation when the man had the girlfriend, yet the proxy was the sister and the ill man was telling them both different things about how he felt. I can't imagine being the one to make a tough choice and other members be disappointed in my decision but in the end you just have to do what is right for the patient.
DeleteIn the video, they discussed that the technology today has gotten so advanced that they can almost always keep people alive. The only thing is that this technology can in most cases only prolong death and not actually heal or save the patients completely. That also depends on each patients situation because they are all different. Death is inevitable, so the question is do you continue supporting life and when do you not support it? The situations become very difficult for the patients and their families because people are deciding on if someone gets to live or die. Most of the times the patients are unconscious and cannot make these decisions, so the decision then falls on the family members. The doctors and families then have to weigh their options, is the pain and suffering worth it, what is the risk of death from procedure and what is the risk from disease, and what would the patient want? Some patients want to keep fighting and others want to let go. No two situations are the same. These decisions become so difficult to make, and no person should actually have to deal with these situations, but it does happen everyday. I have not previously thought of what I would want if I were in this situation, but this video has caused me to think about what I would want. Hopefully by the end of the semester I will have a better idea of what I would want.
ReplyDeleteIt is good to hear that more and more people are thinking about what they want to happen if that tragic day should come (hoping it doesn't!). It really is amazing far technology has come though isn't it? You really do bring up some important questions that we are hopefully able to delve deeper into as the semester goes on.
DeleteWhat surprised me most in the Facing Death video was how different family members of the dying people had such different opinions on the care and treatments of their loved ones. Often times more than one person was involved in making the decision to end someone's life by taking them off a ventilator or taking out a feeding tube and some family members just wanted the dying family member to be out of their pain and misery while others wanted to hold onto them and keep them alive for as long as possible. It is so hard to know what the person truly wants, especially if they can no longer communicate. Even if they made their wishes clear prior to having something happen to them, what you feel you would want when you are perfectly healthy could be vastly different from what you want when you are in intensive care at a hospital and on the verge of death. This video also made me question whether or not death could be better than life if the condition is serious enough and also how much/for how long should we use the life support technology that exists until the patient is truly only kept alive by the myriad of machines. I really have had very few experiences related to the issues in Facing Death, although I now realize how important it is to make sure to make my end of life preferences clear to my parents because anything could happen and you never know when you could end up in a life-threatening situation where important medical decisions need to be made. In my future in the healthcare industry I will probably also face difficult experiences like the physicians in the film, so I hope this class will help prepare me better for such situations.
ReplyDeleteThe thing that I found most surprising from the video was how unprepared some people were to become a healthcare proxy for their loved ones. They seemed to have little idea as to what the person would want in the situations that they were placed in. I would have thought that when a person names a healthcare proxy they would sit down with them and discuss every foreseeable situation so that they would know exactly what that person would want if they became unable to make a decision for themselves. Just a simple conversation could have made the lives of the patients, their families, and their doctors. Obviously this couldn't always happen but in some of these cases where the dying process seemed to go on for an extended period of time a conversation of this nature seems only natural. Fortunately I have never been in a situation similar to any of those shown in the video. I've only had a couple extended family members die and none of them ever ended up in a situation like those in the video.
ReplyDeleteIt really is shocking to see how unprepared people are in these situations. What's worse than that is that they then have to make those life changing decisions during such a stressful and emotional time in their lives. More than anything though, it is sad.
DeleteWhat surprised me most about the Facing Death video was really the denial some of the patients had with regards to their diseases. The one that stood out to me was the 40 something year old father who kept believing that he was going to go home for good. When faced with death, it was like he tried to act like it wasn't there. Maybe he thought if he didn't acknowledge it, then maybe he wouldn't have to deal with it. It seemed like his wife accepted his fate even before he did. The big thing that really hit me was when he kept telling his wife that he was going to beat the disease and go home. At that point it didn't seem like denial but rather he didn't want to give up because of his family. Such actions/statements truly deserve respect and I hope he now rests in peace.
ReplyDeleteI have one experience relating to this video that actually sticks out it my mind and that is that all of my siblings have sat down with our parents and talked about what we would like done if put in a situation like the ones presented in the video. All of us knows what the other would like done should anything life threatening happen to us. We did this so there is never any confusion or fighting should that tragic day come. Other than that I have not really been exposed to dying that much.
Craig, I like that you pointed out the denial in the father's story. While all of the stories were hard to watch, this is the one that brought me to tears. I am the type of person that always pictures myself in the situation that others are facing, and I cannot imagine the emotional toll put on this father and his wife.The father wanted to ignore his disease in hopes that he could beat it and be with his family again. His wife, however, wanted him to accept it and be at peace with it. When he looked his wife in the eyes and said that he was going to get through it...that's when I lost it. The will to overcome tragedy can be a powerful thing, and sometimes it can make situations like this down-right complicated.
DeleteI agree with Craig no not myself lol. I too was surprised how unprepared some of the family members were for the type of situations they were in
DeleteThe most surprising part of facing death to me was the families and how tough it was to determine how to handle the care of the dying family member. Specifically the situation with the girlfriend of the man that was dying and the sister. The girlfriend said the dying man wanted this type of care but the caregiver, the sister, told doctors she had never heard her brother tell her those things. That situation is extremely tough to handle and could be something that tears a family apart. I have experience with my family. Specifically both my grandmas, I remember my family talking about care for them and what both of my grandma's wanted for the end of their lives.
ReplyDeleteThe most surprising part of the video to me was the personal guilt and responsibility that the families of the patients took on themselves when given the difficult decisions they had to face. I expected them to be hesitant about being the one to make the decision, but it was interesting to me how that some of the relatives shifted the cause of their loved ones' future death from the disease to being based on their decision alone. Perhaps my favorite quote from this video was when one of the physicians stated that they could artificially keep a patient alive in a suspended-like state for years with the equipment they now have, but that this is only "prolonging the inevitable." To the physician, they can clearly see how that the disease would be to blame for the person's death. To the family, when they are given the decision on what to do, they cannot see it this way. They see it as they would be the reason for the death, and therefore choose to prolong this horrendous existence of medically-induced comas and ventilators. In my freshman year of college, my great-grandma (who was 87 at the time) fell and broke her hip. She had late-stage dementia and was almost completely non-verbal. She never went home from the hospital following her fall. She was unable to move without pain, much less walk. She could not speak. Eventually she was sleeping all of the day, only opening her eyes when the nurse came in and moved her to change her bed clothes or something of that sort. It soon became clear that her body was shutting down. She stopped eating, and eventually, due to the progress of her dementia, stopped waking up at all, even when moved or touched. She was on a morphine drip for the pain in her hip. When asked about a feeding tube, our family decided to decline. We did not see the benefit of artificially keeping her alive for however long, especially knowing she would not come out of the hospital due to her injuries and the severity of her dementia, not to mention she was no longer even conscious any part of the day. When she passed away, it was hard on the entire family, but we did have comfort knowing that she passed surrounded by her family, comfortable, peacefully, and without a dramatic, years-long process that would have been worse on everyone, including her.
ReplyDeleteCody, I agree with what you stated in the first couple of lines, where many times the families have the responsibility to make these life and death decisions. There was a part of the video were two sisters agreed on how to precede with their mother's treatment and one sister disagreed on what to do. This goes to show that making these decisions is never easy and there is never a correct answer.
DeleteDuring the Facing Death video, a part I did not particularly agree with was the woman who was on a ventilator for over an entire year. Just think about it, being hooked up to a machine fighting for your life. The suffering many of these patients go through it unbelievable. Though the families of the patient want their loved one to stay alive as much as possible, I think there comes a point in life where they must realize that the quality of life they are living becomes unrealistic, even if they do survive, what type of life would they live? Family members must make some tough choices, and deciding whether or not to take a patient off a ventilator or a respirator is one of the hardest choices I can think of. If you decide to take them off the ventilator, will they die right away? Or will they get better? The family and sometimes the doctors can not give you a right answer.
ReplyDeleteI agree that this would be one of the hardest situations a family could be faced with. There comes a point when the quality of life becomes so poor that is there really a point in keeping them alive? I honestly think I would feel guilty prolonging the death of a loved one if they were in a state where they couldn't even function on their own. Having to see a family member suffer like that would be unimaginable.
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ReplyDeleteHealthcare providers sit in a very tough spot. We all have our own ethical opinions, but as a professional, it is not your place to force your beliefs on your patients or their families. How thin is the line between giving rational, medically sound advice and telling your patient what you think they should do based off of personal morals or opinions? As Emily said, doctors do not always have the right answers because sometimes there is no definitive right answer.
ReplyDeleteTori, I completely agree with what you and Emily have said. It is hard to think that even though we know in our hearts what is right still might not be right for any given family in any given situation. I also think that it is tough not being able to share our opinion with the family, we are there to guide the patient and treat the patient as nurses.
DeleteI think it was surprising to see how each doctor handled the situation a bit differently. While some doctors encouraged patients to keep fighting, other doctors told the patients it was okay to quit and give up, but how do the doctors really know what the right thing to say is? I also thought it was interesting to see how in denial some of the patients were and how hard it was for the family members to have to make that life or death decision for their loved one.
ReplyDeleteI recently had an experience facing death a few months ago when my grandmother passed. They discovered she had lung cancer and they knew she wouldn't have much time left. We talked it over with her and she decided she wanted to be a DNR, and although it was hard to accept the fact that if at any time something happened to her they wouldn't help her and it would end, but we knew it was what she wanted so we had to accept it. Its hard dealing with a dying family member, but I am thankful that my grandma made her own decisions and we were not forced to make the decision for her.
ReplyDeleteIm sorry about your lost, as i have no previous experience with the subject i truly do not understand the difficult situation your family experience. I felt the need to comment on this blog post because i believe that you were in one of the hardest situations in not being able to do anything to help which worries me.
DeleteThe most surprising thing to me about the video was that it seemed that although the diseases were different and situations were different it seemed as if most families just wanted to prolong the time the had with their loved ones dying. I have no prior occurrence with death (knock on wood) i would act the same was as most if i was conflicted with it.
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