A new study published in a publication named publication of Neurotrauma reveals that doctors are pulling the plug too soon on certain patients whose life support is stopped despite doctors having no hope for their recovery. The paper and the study contribute to the growing body of information challenging existing practice surrounding the removal of life support from patients.
Current Practice
Up until now, it has been the norm for a patient who is comatose, unresponsive but not brain-dead, and in intensive parlance and on a ventilator, especially a patient with severe traumatic brain injuries, to be given an almost sure grim prognosis 72 hours after admission by the doctor in charge to his family members, a practice which often leads to the decision to remove the life support and the patient’s death.
New Study
This modest new study was published Thursday in the Journal of Neurotrauma compared the features and destinies of 80 patients who had died after life support was stopped with the fates of 80 patients whose life support was maintained even though doctors had no hope for recovery.
Comparison Drawbacks
Dr. Walter Koroshetz is the director of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. He argues that the longer families wait to decide, the better the physicians’ prognoses will be. This extra time allows for a clearer view of the patient’s chances for recovery.
The Complexity of Prognosis
Recovery from serious traumatic brain injuries is frequently a slowly unfolding process that may continue for months or even years. Dr. Koroshetz pointed out that some of the patients who had been on ventilators, and who physicians had feared were going to live with serious disabilities, have turned the situation around and walked into the hospital and talked to the staff. Even though, such events are outliers; the point remains that most patients who survive with severe traumatic brain injuries end up with persistent disability and typically face protracted years in rehabilitation centers or nursing homes.
The 72-Hour Convention
Dr. Claude Hemphill of the University of California, San Francisco, explains that there is no science or scientific correctness to the 72-hour threshold. The 72-hours restriction has only evolved as a standard since many of these individuals look severely ill after getting in. Many then physicians feel pushed to make decisions excisions quite early on. Dr. Hemphill was involved with the research organization that contributed the data during the investigation. However, he himself did not accept any patients or study the data.
The Dilemma of the Physicians
Yelena Bodien, a neuroscientist at Massachusetts General Hospital and Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, conducted the study based on the experiences she gained with the families at the rehabilitation center. She stressed the point that families were often told their loved ones would never walk, talk, or return to work. However, she and her colleagues realized that a decision taken in haste was certain to lead to something that a patient would not desire.
The Disability Paradox
Dr. Bodien noted that, via her research, there was a “disability paradox” in that more people would describe meaningful lives even after being seriously crippled. The function that the paradox plays in counseling families is as it undermines the homogeneity view that a life with severe impairment is not worth living.
Conclusion
A new study presumes that denying life support for traumatic brain injury can be postponed further to lead to better results and precise prognosis for the patient. The rub is that the physicians have to offer the families with exact data among a significant degree of ambiguity. This study means the significance of patience and humility while making these severe judgments. Families and clinicians should be aware of the potential for healing and many meaningful lives reported by many people with disabilities.
The medical professionals, therefore, will know how better to accompany families through these terrible decisions as they find hope and give a chance of recovery instead of only counting the ones that will be lost too soon.