Temporarily immortal
August 4, 2008
Thanks to blogger Michael Kruse for pointing me to Into the sunset. It is about the new trend in end-of-life care and raises the question: “The idea that the terminally ill need pain relief and humane care care instead of “curing” is catching on. But what about the people who just grow old?”
In America, the hospice movement was founded in 1974 to deal with the pain relief and humane care of the terminally ill, but what about those who cannot be easily defined as “terminally ill?”
Yet for all its successes, the hospice movement faces challenges that will far outstrip the resources now dedicated to palliative care, even in the richest countries. Hospices are generally associated with cancer, where after a certain stage life expectancy is short and fairly predictable. But the current habit of treating people as “either temporarily immortal, or dying”—as Joanne Lynn, an American geriatrics expert, puts it—makes no sense when patients suffer chronic disease of the heart or lungs, or succumb slowly to dementia, or to general decay. An important category of people, already huge in the rich world and soon to grow in developing countries (see article), consists of elderly people who will never be well, but have no idea when they will die. There is no single answer: hospitals, nursing homes and family care will all play a role.
My mother- and father-in law were elderly folk who would never be well, but had no idea of when they would die. In God’s good time they finally met their end in nursing home beds, and they had good, compassionate care for the most part, but it’s still a hell of a way to die.
To all who are still young enough to shrug off this situation, that’s okay, but it’s becoming more of an attention-grabber for this gent in his 78th year. I was on the local hospital Board of Trustees when the first hospice was formed in my town, so I already have a healthy appreciation for the “live-and-let-die” convictions of hospice leaders. For those not familiar with hospices I commend this article.
Dave, not fearing death but a tad uneasy about the process.
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