{"id":49,"date":"2014-07-08T20:27:00","date_gmt":"2014-07-09T00:27:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.cmhughesmd.com\/?p=49"},"modified":"2014-07-08T20:27:00","modified_gmt":"2014-07-09T00:27:00","slug":"our-unrealistic-views-of-death-through-a-doctors-eyes-the-washington-post","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.cmhughesmd.com\/?p=49","title":{"rendered":"Our unrealistic views of death, through a doctor\u2019s eyes &#8211; The Washington Post"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&#160;<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Doing something often feels better than doing nothing. Inaction feeds the sense of guilt-ridden ineptness family members already feel as they ask themselves, \u201cWhy can\u2019t I do more for this person I love so much?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Opting to try all forms of medical treatment and procedures to assuage this guilt is also emotional life insurance: When their loved one does die, family members can tell themselves, \u201cWe did everything we could for Mom.\u201d In my experience, this is a stronger inclination than the equally valid (and perhaps more honest) admission that \u201cwe sure put Dad through the wringer those last few months.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>At a certain stage of life, aggressive medical treatment can become sanctioned torture. When a case such as this comes along, nurses, physicians and therapists sometimes feel conflicted and immoral. We\u2019ve committed ourselves to relieving suffering, not causing it. A retired nurse once wrote to me: \u201cI am so glad I don\u2019t have to hurt old people any more.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/m.washingtonpost.com\/opinions\/our-unrealistic-views-of-death-through-a-doctors-eyes\/2012\/01\/31\/gIQAeaHpJR_story.html\">Our unrealistic views of death, through a doctor\u2019s eyes &#8211; The Washington Post<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#160; Doing something often feels better than doing nothing. Inaction feeds the sense of guilt-ridden ineptness family members already feel as they ask themselves, \u201cWhy can\u2019t I do more for &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.cmhughesmd.com\/?p=49\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Our unrealistic views of death, through a doctor\u2019s eyes &#8211; The Washington Post&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sfsi_plus_gutenberg_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_show_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_type":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_alignemt":"","sfsi_plus_gutenburg_max_per_row":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-49","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-end-of-life-care"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.cmhughesmd.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.cmhughesmd.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.cmhughesmd.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.cmhughesmd.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.cmhughesmd.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=49"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blog.cmhughesmd.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.cmhughesmd.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=49"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.cmhughesmd.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=49"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.cmhughesmd.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=49"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}