Ziv Magen refused to consent to withdrawing life-sustaining treatment from his 39-year-old wife Maiko. He said he had been "ready to let her go" but not until he was sure everything possible had been done to save her. (Courier Mail)
He was told that his wife had only a 5 per cent chance of survival at best. "But even if she has only a 1 per cent chance of survival, does it give them the right to take that chance away from her?" he said. Gold Coast Health Service District executive director Dr Brian Bell said the decision to stop treatment was made by doctors "on clinical grounds and no other."
4 comments:
Its a really a nice Blog. There are other countries as well that offer medical tourism but it’s difficult to surpass India when it comes to medical facilities along with the low cost and quality service offered.
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This is a sad case where a "1%" survival chance was given to this unfortunate woman. As a retired pulmonary/critical care physician, I was often in the position of counseling families in cases such as this. I wonder how the doctors can really state 1% and, if true, when does "futility" kick in? Is it at 0.5%? I just didn't try to use numbers like this because they're often not really evidence based. I found it better to say something like, "I've taken care of many cases just like your wife's. Let me tell you how other families approached decision making." This opens the door to a broader discussion about the benefits and burdens of aggressive care. Even so, some families insist on continuing ventilator support awaiting a miracle.
I wonder how often a guardian is willing to override a spouse's decision? Is there any data on how often this might occur. This seems like a pretty unique case.
Here's a sad case from my own experience.
http://www.endoflifeblog.com/2010/02/talking-to-god.html
Sometimes the guardian is appointed SPECIFICALLY for the purpose of overriding the current agent/surrogate. So, this sort of study would have to be carefully done.
Great resource, believe me India has the best medical facilities with low cost and quality service.
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