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Letters |17 June 2014

Futility: Another Way?

Keyvan Ravakhah, MD, MBA

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TO THE EDITOR:
Shah's story on futility (1) misleads readers to believe that surrendering to an unreasonable request made by the daughter of a dying patient, under the guise of “giving hope,” is acceptable. He seemed to forget whose physician he was, subjecting a terminally ill patient to extensive surgery, bowel resection, and open abdomen only to have her die a few days later. Shah's responsibility should have been to help his dying patient and not a family member in desperate need of support that he apparently could not provide. It is also painfully surprising to see that the person communicating these complex and difficult decisions with the family was a surgical resident and not an experienced medical or surgical attending physician who could have assisted this desperate daughter toward the appropriate decision for her ailing mother.
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Ravakhah K. Futility: Another Way?. Ann Intern Med. 2014;160:878–879. doi: 10.7326/L14-5012-7

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Published: Ann Intern Med. 2014;160(12):878-879.

DOI: 10.7326/L14-5012-7

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