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posted ago by Narg ago by Narg +47 / -0

Here again, and no surprise to those on this board, doctors typically treat patients very differently from how they themselves choose to be treated, and are NOT fully transparent about the effects of expensive, harsh, and harmful treatments they prescribe to patients. The article doesn't mention this, but given that so many doctors avoid such treatments themselves, they aren't being fully transparent with patients about the efficacy and likely outcome of such treatments either.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-13891031/death-expert-doctors-preferred-die.html

'[That's why] what doctors want to do at the end of their lives is revealing.'

Chris claimed that 'most doctors value the quality of their life' more than its 'length,' and don't want to endure some of the negative side effects that come with life-saving treatments.

For example, chemotherapy for older patients can be incredibly taxing and arduous,' he wrote.

'It can cause nausea, vomiting, depression, mouth sores, sore muscles, and brain fog. It can also weaken the heart and damage the kidneys. Chemo can make one’s last days unbearably painful.

'[Doctors] eschew the harsh treatments (such as surgeries, radiation, and chemotherapy) they regularly hand out to their older patients.

'Typically, they will stop treatment, refuse CPR, take painkillers as appropriate, and be surrounded by loved ones at home.

'They have fewer aggressive interventions, suffer less, and take advantage of palliative care, including hospice.

'What's unusual about doctors is not how much treatment they get compared with most Americans - but how little.'

Chris pointed to a 2014 survey conducted by Stanford University that found 'nearly nine in 10 doctors said they would choose a do-not-resuscitate (DNS) status when dying.'

'Yet often, doctors do not offer that option to their patients,' he added.

Dr. Sunita Puri, the program director at the Hospice and Palliative Medicine Fellowship at the UMass Chan School of Medicine, echoed his sentiments.

'Most physicians I knew noticed the irony inherent in our offering patients intubations, CPR, tracheostomies, dialysis, and so on, when many of us wouldn't choose such interventions for ourselves in their circumstances,' she told him.