I recently read an article by Ken Murray, “How Doctors Die“. It was posted a little under a year ago and I was surprised by what I learned. Murray and many other writers have pointed out some of the vast differences in the way that the “normal” person chooses to die versus the way a doctor does. Although some of the things I learned were very surprising, it all makes sense. Doctors have often spent years inside of hospitals and have first hand experience with treating many diseases. They know the odds and risks better than anyone else. It’s like living with a constructor. If you had a deck in your back yard, and it was starting to rot, a constructor wouldn’t hesitate at making the right choice. If it were dangerous, he would know when it needed to be replaced. He would understand the risks and odds of it breaking because he would be an expert in that field. A doctor can similarly be an expert in death.
It may sound morbid but if I ever needed an expert opinion on death I would ask a doctor because they live a life surrounded by it. Miracles occur all the time at hospitals but death is always lurking.
Murray makes the point that doctors will do everything in their powers to try to save a patient, because it is their job, but when being treated themselves, they often receive a lot less medical care. However, this is not because they are being under treated but because they choose not to be. Their better understanding of modern medicine often grants them clarity and results in them dying much more gently, at home with their loved ones. And isn’t this what most people want?
Other studies have been done on the way doctors die and for the most part, they show many contradictions from how the general public die. For example, in an article by Joseph J. Gallo, 64% of 765 doctors had prepared an advanced directive which specifies what should be done to save their lives if they became incapacitated. Only 20% of the general public has done the same.
Another study asked doctors if they would want CPR, if they were in a chronic coma, and an overwhelming 90% said no while 75% of the general public said yes. Why is this? Once again it come down to the experience. Doctors know the true odds and at times, the brutality, of a successful CPR while normal people relate CPR to the successful pursuits on TV medical shows.
I’m not a doctor, nor do I have any experience in a true hospital setting so I don’t share the experience that a doctor would writing on this topic. However, I can appreciate what has been already written. If we want to redesign our homes we take the advice of interior decorators and if we want to learn to play basketball we would be honored to learn from Steve Nash. When we die, why not hear what a doctor would do? However, doctors usually steer away from giving this sort of advice because they don’t want to impose their views on someone who is in a fragile state. With that said, if I were dying, I would want to hear exactly what a doctor would do if he were me because they understand medicine better than I.