The article tells the story of Dr Elizabeth D. McKinley and her family. Dr McKinley battled breast cancer for 17 years but when the cancer spread to her liver and lungs and the tissue surrounding her brain, she turned down further treatment and began hospice care.
She said what she really wanted was to spend more time with her family, and “a little more time being me and not being somebody else.” However, her family found it difficult to understand why she was not opting for further treatment.
The article highlights the financial and emotional cost to patients and their families of poor planning for end of life care and of ‘futile treatments’.
It also highlights the need for doctors to be more open with patients about their prognosis and how their condition will progress, and better at explaining treatment options and the consequences of treatment.
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