It’s not the medical establishment, but patients and their families that are pushing every type of aggressive treatment possible. Here’s an extreme example of a woman who spent her last 6 years in a hospital
http://archive.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2005/03/11/hospital_family_spar_over_end_of_life_care?pg=full
True, but in this case it wasn’t. To add to the dark humor of the situation, the medical professionals were pushing all the expensive treatments in order to avoid lawsuits, but missed the low-tech and really important thing - not letting a blind, frail woman leave the hospital from the sixth floor without a wheelchair.
My elderly mother (and my grandmother before her) is another example of someone who was over-medicated and, in retrospect, it greatly affected her quality of life at the end. And that was with my very medically savvy sister monitoring it all the best she could!
@zoosermom: I guess I read the article differently about who seemed to be demanding the aggressive tx
I was simply referencing my own family’s situation with regards to overmedication. Just a progression of the thread by referencing a different aspect to a very serious problem.
My bad, I misread your post. “True, but in this case it wasn’t” was you referencing your own situation, not article I had referenced.