MEDICAL

OVERTREATMENT
:
A BROKEN
SYSTEM
DIFFICULT WORDS

Administer
-to manage or supervise the execution, use, or conduct of
Consciousness
-the quality or state of being aware especially of something within oneself
Maze
-a confusing intricate network of passages
- something confusingly elaborate or complicated
Infinitesimal
-taking on values arbitrarily close to but greater than zero
- immeasurably or incalculably small
 Futile
-serving no useful purpose
-completelyineffective
Grieving
-to cause to suffer
-to feel or showgriefover
-to submit a formalgrievanceconcerning
Litigation
-to carry on a legal contest by judicial process
-to decide and settle in a court of law
Resuscitate
-to revive from apparent death or from unconsciousness
 Intervened
-to occur, fall, or come between points of time or events
Homicide
-a killing of one human being by another
Explicitly
-fully revealed or expressed without vagueness, implication
Err
-to make a mistake
-to violate an accepted standard of conduct
 Hospice
-a program designed to provide palliative care and emotional support
to the terminally ill in a home or homelike setting so that quality of life is
maintained and family members may be active participants in care
Terminally ill
-having a disease that cannot be cured and will cause death
IMPORTANT EVENTS AND DATES

When doctor ask if the family want everything done, and the family answers
yes, often meaning do everything thats reasonable. And the problem is that
they may not know whats reasonable. For their part, doctors who are told to do
everything will do it, whether it is reasonable or not.

Many people think of CPR as a reliable lifesaver when, in fact, the results are
usually poor. If a patient suffers from severe illness, old age, or terminal disease,
the odds of good outcome from CPR are infinitesimal, while the odds of suffering
are overwhelming. Poor knowledge and misguided expectations lead to a lot of
bad decisions.
 A man named Jack, a 78-year-old who had been ill for years and
undergone about 15 major surgical procedures. He explained that
he never, under any circumstances, wanted to be placed on life
support machines again. One Saturday, however, Jack suffered a
massive stroke and got admitted to the emergency room
unconscious, without his wife. Doctors did everything possible to
resuscitate him and put him on a life support in the ICU. This was
Jacks worst nightmare. When someone arrived at the hospital and
took over Jackss care, he spoke to his wife and to the hospital
staff about his care preferences. Then he turned off the life
support machines and sat with him. He died two hours later.
 Although Jack had thoroughly documented his wishes, Jack hadnt
died as hed hoped. The system had intervened. One of the nurses,
I found out, even reported my actions as a possible homicide.
Nothing came of it, of course; Jacks wishes had been spelled out
explicitly, and hed left the paper to prove it. But the prospect of a
police investigation is teryfying for any physician.Its no wonder
many doctors err on the side of overtreatment.
 Hospice care, which focuses on providing terminally ill
patients with comfort and dignity, provides most people with
much better final days. Amazingly, studies have found that
people placed in hospice are often live longer than people
seeking active cures.