Sacred - “Worthy of respect”
1
Some people speak of the “Sanctity of Life”, for them, the sacredness of life before birth. I often wonder about the other end of life, death. Those who are dying also need to be treated with dignity. Their lives are just as sacred as anyone else’s. During my time in nursing school, and as a registered nurse in the hospital I often saw the dignity of a dying individual's life ignored.
I first came to notice this lack of dignity as a nursing student. I was a non-traditional student, having attained a bachelor's in Biology and working a few years at the Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research, before deciding to become a nurse. Until then I had not considered much about the dying and they way the end of their lives were treated.
During my first hospital rotation as a student, I spent time training on a medical floor. This medical floor, like all medical floors in the country, mostly cared for the elderly who were often in the hospital for months at a time. The majority were in one stage of dying or another. One of my first patients was an elderly Chinese man. His wife was at his bedside as often as she was allowed. She did not speak any English, so we relied on a translator, and her son when he was available.
It was debatable if the man knew what was going on around him. He did notice his wife, however. When she talked to him, he always smiled. He would die, probably within the next week. His lungs were not working well, so he was on oxygen. The normal nasal cannulas were not able to deliver enough oxygen, so the doctor wanted to use a mask. The man did not like this. He fought the mask every time, which caused his wife distress.
When I asked the doctor why he wanted to push the mask on the patient, even though it obviously caused the patient signs of distress, he replied that it would extend the mans life by two weeks. I questioned the nurses on why you would basically harass someone who is dying, just for an extra two weeks. They were scandalized. How could I suggest that we just “let” the patient die? We needed to do everything possible to save his life. If the man wanted to die, I was told, he would be in Hospice or at home. He and his family obviously wanted him to live, so the hospital staff was going to do everything in their power to keep him alive. They never did ask the patient’s wife if she wanted the mask to be used, they just told her “it needs to be done”.
When I looked into the case further, I found no one had talked to the wife, or his family, about letting her husband die in peace, naturally. It was not a choice they were willing to give her. Needless to say, the man spent his last days fighting the nurses and aides over the use of that mask. His few peaceful times of resting quietly while holding his wife’s hand were few and far between, and even denied him at the end.
Many people in the medical field have an aversion to death, or dying patients. They hate to see their own mortality staring them in the face. The drive to prove that people can be kept alive, no matter what, is very strong in them. Thankfully Hospice, and its ideas, are becoming a more viable choice for many. As the population of the world ages, it is important that we encourage those in the medical profession to be trained in end of life care, and the sanctity of life.
1 The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2004. 19 Oct. 2006.
Copyright 2008
