Letting Go

January 9, 2015

(Slate) – Situations like these are some of the most ethically challenging in any hospital. In the ICU, our team sensed when someone might not make it out of the hospital—and most times we were right. In these instances, our team regularly spent rounds discussing how aggressive care might hurt the patient while not improving her chance of survival. But discussing medical opinions among medical professionals is very different from recommending that a family withdraw life support for a loved one.