2. She’s Gotta Go
I worked in an ICU. A patient was asked about their goals of care and if they wanted to be resuscitated. The patient said yes, but her daughter said no. The attending said, “Well, your mom is still competent, so we have to follow her wishes”.
The daughter pulled the doctor aside and said, “Why don’t you just give her some medications to put her to sleep? She won’t be competent, and then my word goes, and you pull the plug”.
There was silence for a while, and then the attending very slowly said, “No, we don’t do that”, and showed the daughter out of the room. The patient made it out of the hospital OK that time. I sometimes wonder how she did after that.
