Taking A Closer Look About End-Of-Life Care And Medical Treatments
When the time comes and our loved ones suffer from serious illnesses and are observed to be dying, facing decisions about medical treatments, and even end-life care is often too confusing and extremely difficult for members of the family, as well as the caregivers.
Below are some important things you need to know to properly deal with your seniors who have serious illnesses. It is wise that before you make any informed decisions for your loved ones, you must at least learn some of the basic meanings of the essential terms.
Advance Directive: This is the general term that describes the many varieties of legal instructions that individuals can sign to let them express their wishes with regard to their future medical treatments. The directive normally includes a living will, the CPR directive, and a medical durable special power of attorney.
CPR Directive: CPR (Cardiopulmonary resuscitation) directive is the advance order telling emergency medical teams not to use CPR. In most states, the local Public Health and Environment issues a CPR directive form that a patient can use in purchasing state CPR directive bracelets or necklaces.
Do Not Resuscitate Order
This is a written directive of a doctor on the medical chart of the patient telling the nursing home or the hospital staff not to resuscitate a patient if he/she suffers from cardiac arrest, or when the patient stops to breathe.
Comfort Care
This is the treatment that is primarily aimed at relieving emotional, spiritual, and physical distress most often experienced by patients who are dying. The main goal here is not to cause death but instead permit death to happen as comfortably, gently and as pain-free as possible.
Hospice
This is the care provided to patients who are terminally-ill from an interdisciplinary team that works in cooperation with a certified physician. What the team aims is to provide comfort care either at nursing facilities, hospice care centers, hospitals, and even at home.
Living Will
This is a signed document that states that a patient is not open to artificial life support the moment he is seriously ill and is not able to communicate. The living will generally applies only to an artificial life support during a terminal illness. It does not include any other forms of medical treatments. However, it can apply to tube-feeding.
Medical Durable Power Of Attorney
This is a document that is signed by the patient appointing someone to serve as the agent in making decisions for medical treatments for the patient if he/she can no longer communicate.
Understanding Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR)
The most common form of CPR is mouth to mouth breathing. This works by pressing the chest of the patient to stimulate the heart and the lungs, thus producing oxygen. Trained personnel administering CPR know how to use airway tubes, electric shocks, fast-acting medications, and advanced cardiac life support. Cardiopulmonary resuscitation is very beneficial for patients suffering from sudden cardiac arrest.
What Is Tube Feeding?
Tube feeding is the method of sending nutrients and liquids to patients who can no longer drink and eat by mouth. Short term tube-feeding uses a lengthy tube normally inserted through the nose and the esophagus of the patients directly into the stomach. For long-term tube feeding, the tube may be inserted directly through the skin of the patient into the intestines or the stomach. The tube going into the stomach is called a gastric tube, and or a jejunal tube for the one used into the intestines.
What Is Mechanical Ventilation?
Ventilators, also called respirators, are those machines that pump oxygen into and out of the lungs and the airway of a patient. These are mechanical substitutes for normal breathing. Although these are not a cure, these machines can buy time to observe if patients are capable of breathing naturally or not. A patient may receive mechanical ventilations in three different ways: through a face mask, through an endotracheal tube, or through a tracheotomy.
Patients using mechanical ventilators should sit in a chair or lie in bed with restricted movements. As with patients with an endotracheal tube, they are not able to speak or swallow properly.
It is important to understand the necessary things needed when serious illness happens to seniors. That way, you will not have to think much about these issues when your loved ones already become terminally ill.
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