I received an article in WhatsApp with the same title as the one for this blog and my mind immediately went to two doctors who gave me the right advice at the right time.
The first one was my late wife’s cardiologist, who is also a personal friend of our GP, who advised us to not hospitalise her but, to ensure that she took her medication regularly and at the prescribed dosage and time at home. This ensured that she lived a life of comfort in her last days in familiar surroundings and among people she was familiar and comfortable with.
The second one was an amazing Nephrologist who unlike many other specialists in the city where I live advised me to keep my late father at home rather than in a hospital during his last days. This of course meant that I had to provide nursing care at home but, he was comfortable and content in his last days and died in his sleep at home.
In most similar cases, the medical professionals advise hospitalisation for what I suspect to be financial benefits for themselves as modern private hospitals give revenue targets to them to practice in their set ups. Had I not been fortunate enough to have doctors with different value systems, I would have perhaps spent two fortunes in hospitalisation for both my late wife and late father in their last days.
I have been hospitalised five times for major surgeries and know what it means and I have instructed my son and daughter in love that no matter what happens, I should not be hospitalised again ever. I am at an age where such thoughts must be clearly worked through and a course of action in case needed drawn out well in advance. I have also drawn up a living will about which my son is fully aware.
It is not a pleasant subject but, one that people of my age must read and understand and take appropriate action. My readers can access the article under reference https://www.zocalopublicsquare.org/2011/11/30/how-doctors-die/ideas/nexus/.