What a hospice physician does when standard hospice care doesn't work well enough.

What a hospice physician does when standard hospice care doesn't work well enough.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/60-minutes-aid-in-dying-lapook

<< Extract >>

We joined Dr. Walsh as he visited one of his hospice patients, Robert Williams, at home. Dr. Walsh says the majority of his patients who are terminally ill receive hospice care, compassionate, professional end-of-life treatment that can include anti-anxiety drugs and powerful narcotics like morphine. Though usually extremely effective at keeping people comfortable, in rare instances, standard hospice care doesn't work well enough. In those cases, Dr. Walsh says, one option is something called palliative sedation.

Dr. Eric Walsh: When the physician decides that suffering is intolerable, the physician prescribes a medication which puts the patient in a coma.

Dr. Jon LaPook: Which is what?

Dr. Eric Walsh: Well, usually it's a barbiturate. The nurse administers it. It's given until the person is asleep. The person sleeps for three days, five days. I've had someone live 10 days, still excreting, still breathing, with the family at the bedside wondering, "When is this going to end?"