Tell me about my experience, during my internship, I met patients with advanced abdominal tumors, young men, because of pancreatic tumors, has been opened three times, the body is full of tubes, some tubes are constantly filled with life-sustaining drugs, plasma, some tanks are constantly seeping out of the patient's necrosis of the tumor produced by the fluids, feces, urine, every few hours I need to go to him to change the covering in the mouth of the tubes and surgical wounds gauze covering the tube opening and surgical wound every few hours, day and night. The patient was conscious, and each change was excruciatingly painful, but if not, the man would be soaking in urine and feces. This agony lasts day and night, and large doses of pain medication are useless. Due to the young body base to withstand the consumption, due to the development of modern medicine and many ways to maintain life, this state lasted for several months, the father and mother dried up tears, the patient has long been a mental breakdown into a walking corpse. This state makes me y understand the word "life is worse than death". I only remember that after surviving the Spring Festival that year, I went to work on the third day of the new year, and the bed had already been emptied, and I froze for a moment, but I breathed a long sigh of relief. The outcome was a relief for both me and my family. Looking back on those agonizing months, I wonder what it was like in the hearts of his parents?
In 2013, Grandpa passed away. He went peacefully, only to receive a call from the hospital one winter afternoon informing us to come for the aftermath. In fact it seemed like we had all been waiting for this call, for this day. Grandpa had been lying in the hospital bed for too long, the advanced stages of Parkinson's disease had long since robbed him of the valor of his youth, unconscious, living on tubes and medication, probably not talking about living, merely surviving. Merely medication and instruments to keep him alive. A few years of being bedridden had left his face and torso deformed, breathing and eating by tubes, his nose had lost the function of breathing, his mouth had lost the function of chewing, the whole lower part of his face had begun to atrophy, due to prolonged bedridden and malnutrition, he was thin only to a skeleton, but his hands and feet were edematous like buns, his skin was about to be stretched out, and even his dignity was fading away slowly. This is no longer the person I know, a proud scholar, a kind grandfather. I think if he was conscious, he would not have allowed himself to come this far. But there are some illnesses that eat away at the human mind, can't we have the right to decide whether we live or die?
Then I worked in neurosurgery myself, too many patients with craniocerebral trauma. Now neurosurgery can basically do what it takes to get off the operating table and basically save lives. But for those particularly serious brain injury, do not talk about recovery as before, even want to wake up is much more difficult. The patient is not conscious and is fed through a tube. Watching the family deplete their last savings, their eyes lose their light in the face of a once-familiar face. Although I have heard of the miracle of the awakening of a vegetative person, it is only a miracle, not only is the probability very small, much smaller than the probability of winning the lottery. Moreover, the so-called awakening may only be able to recognize people and speak, and it is still far away from living on one's own. For poor families, it is impossible to afford the high medical expenses during the period, and hundreds of thousands of dollars to buy a lottery ticket. In the face of penniless, debt and in the heart, this time to the family what feelings?
This mood, I can understand. 2013, Grandpa died. He was a very peaceful man, and it was only on a winter's afternoon that he received a call from the hospital informing us that he was coming to the hospital for the aftermath. In fact, it seemed like we were all waiting for this call, waiting for this day. Grandpa had been lying in the hospital bed for too long, the advanced stages of Parkinson's disease had long since robbed him of the valor of his youth, unconscious, living on tubes and medication, probably not talking about living, merely surviving. Merely medication and instruments to keep him alive. A few years of being bedridden had left his face and torso deformed, breathing and eating by tubes, his nose had lost the function of breathing, his mouth had lost the function of chewing, the whole lower part of his face had begun to atrophy, due to prolonged bedridden and malnutrition, he was thin only to a skeleton, but his hands and feet were edematous like buns, his skin was about to be stretched out, and even his dignity was fading away slowly. This is no longer the person I know, a proud scholar, a kind grandfather. I think if he was conscious, he would not have allowed himself to come this far. But there are some illnesses that eat away at the human mind, and can't we have the right to decide whether we live or die?
While survival is a human instinct, deciding on one's own life should also be a basic right. China does not have a brain-death law, so as long as the patient still has a heartbeat, doctors do not have the right to abandon treatment. The right to choose is handed over to the family's body, the closest family members will devote all their resources to continue the patient's life, but this continuation of the continuation of their own responsibility in my opinion, not taking into account the well-being of the patient, some continuation of the pain is not.
This is different in the West, where patients sign an agreement before they die. Whether to resuscitate, whether to allow invasive procedures, whether to accept a vegetative state, or even to abandon treatment after how long it is maintained. But this also requires a strong legal system to safeguard the system from being taken advantage of. There's a long way to go, but I think in the case of not being able to live forever and come back from the dead, at least the option of a dignified death is available.
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