[Magdalen] Fwd: Breaking News Alert: Cancer has spread to brain, Jimmy Ca...

[Jay Weigel]

That brings to mind a patient I once had who I bonded with over the course
of her hospital stay. She was a vigorous and active 86 year old who'd had a
heart attack and was considering bypass surgery. What we had in common was
that we'd attended the same small college in Wisconsin some 35 years
apart...what's the odds of meeting someone like that in Virginia? Anyway,
she asked me for an honest opinion about whether I would or wouldn't do it
and I said I would not. She, however, decided to go ahead. Much to my
surprise, she sailed through it, actually better than a lot of 60 year
olds, which goes to show that you just never know and that all cases are
individual. I think of her often and wonder if she's still around. I
wouldn't be surprised if she went on to live past 100.

On Thu, Aug 20, 2015 at 11:21 AM, Cantor03--- via Magdalen <
magdalen at herberthouse.org> wrote:

>
>
> In a message dated 8/20/2015 11:05:33 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
> gracecan at gmail.com writes:
>
> Obviously, this is a highly personal decision, but
> what do you  all think?>>>>>
>
> It is, a highly individual choice, of course, but there is
> a modicum of truth in this.
>
> My mother was 98 when she suffered her first heart attack, and a
> second attack a day later affected her brain, and she was literally
> a raving lunatic who didn't recognize anyone from that point on.
>
> Before I could get home to NW Wisconsin, the cardiologist in
> Minneapolis had managed to get her through cardiac catheterization
> and she was at the gates of coronary bypass surgery.  This all  for
> a 98 year old woman whose brain had been blitzed.
>
> I was able to stop the bypass surgery, and mother blissfully died
> after just a couple of days.
>
> So I do feel there is a point where expensive care is not  appropriate.
> Medicare apparently agreed, and they refused to pay for her
> catheterization.
> Luckily, no agreement with the family about funding costs over and  beyond
> Medicare coverage had been arranged, and the hospital and  catheterization
> team swallowed the cost of this unnecessary procedure.
>
>
>
> David Strang.
>
>
> David Strang.
>
>
>
>