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Every doctor faces this dilemma
What happens when family members insist on last-ditch remedies that a medical professional knows to be useless?
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Doctors have to acknowledge the power differential with their patients, who are away from their homes, in many ways helpless as they face the toughest moments of their lives, says the writer.
PHOTO: PEXELS
Daniela Lamas
My patient’s son took me aside late one evening to share a request.
I braced myself. My patient had been intubated with Covid-19 for weeks, her lungs growing stiffer each day. Her sons held vigil at the bedside, pausing only to critique the nurses and healthcare team. They didn’t like the way the nurse turned their mother. They demanded yet another course of antiviral treatment for Covid-19. As their mother’s health worsened, their frustration escalated – and so did my unease.
