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1 results

  • 18 - The Hardest Decisions

  • Edited by Thomasine Kushner
  • Book:
    Surviving Health Care
    Published online:
    05 June 2012
    Print publication:
    29 March 2010, pp 264-278

  • Summary

    This chapter describes some of the hardest decisions sick people, and their families, face. Experimental treatments and drug trials can offer hope by providing the option of doing something when it seems all other doctors have given up. Hospice is a comprehensive plan of care for terminally ill people focusing on maximizing comfort and improving quality of life, without further treatment of the underlying disease process. Hospice programs are designed to maximize quality of life for terminally ill patients. They employ specially trained physicians and hospice nurses to manage pain and other symptoms. Medications based on opioids including morphine, hydrocodone, oxycodone, hydromorphone, fentanyl, and methadoneare are the best available for controlling pain and shortness of breath. Opioids can affect the body's drive to breathe, which is why overdoses of pain medications can be fatal.