Torment the patient with treatment or let him die in peace?
Doctors presented a test for imminent death within 30 days
According to experts, this test will give them a chance to calmly go home and say goodbye to their loved ones. In addition, the introduction of such a survey will avoid wasting money on treatment. The project is presented in open access in the journal Supportive & Palliative Care – Magnolia Cardona-Morrell and Ken Hillman, Development of a tool for defining and identifying the dying patient in hospital: Criteria for Screening and Triaging to Appropriate aLternative care (CriSTAL), and The Telegraph reports briefly about it ('Death test' could predict chance of dying within 30 days).
Doctors studied 112 special studies and determined which specific tests and questions best predict imminent death. In total, they took into account 29 indicators (age, health status, stage of development of the disease, experience of previous emergency admissions, and so on). The final test shows the chances of dying in the next 30 days (as a percentage).
"Attempts to prevent imminent death lead to excessive spending in the health sector. Doctors often resort to expensive and aggressive types of therapy, which does not affect the outcome of the disease, reduces the quality of life of the patient and, in case of failure, causes frustration among medical professionals," said the lead author of the study, Magnolia Cardona–Morrell from the Australian University of New South Wales.
According to scientists, the new test will help doctors and nurses, on whom relatives of patients put pressure, demanding to maintain the vital activity of patients at any cost. In addition, it will actually allow the terminally ill to choose between a hospital and a home.
Representatives of public organizations contacted by journalists of the British edition, although they approved the test, but noted that one objective decision is clearly not enough for the proper care of terminally ill patients. It is also necessary to improve the quality of psychological training and the ability to sympathize with doctors and nurses, they believe. However, the question of the ethics of such a test was not raised by the authors of The Telegraph.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru23.01.2015