This article is from WeChat public account:Dr.X (ID:doctorx666), author: an ugly orange, slag slag County, title figure from the visual China
In China, talking about death is the biggest taboo. That said, it may not be intuitive, and many people can’t feel it. But let me give you an example. You must beDeep experience:
Presumably, when everyone was young, they all ate rice and put the wrong chopsticks, and they made a whole meal, and they were even remembered by their parents.
Maybe because death is terrible and painful, people talk about death as a curse, and when they think of death, they are sad and painful.
However, the horror of death is a daily routine for others. Some people have been set aside by modern medicine. They are lying in hospital beds and are patiently waiting for the day to come.
In China, more than 7.5 million end-stage patients are suffering from this pain every year. So, I signed up online and joined the hospice care volunteer (安安志愿者) team, wanting to go to the end of life Do something.
1. I made up a section of death education
When I signed up, I said to people around me: I have to take care of the dying elderly.
Some people think it’s a good thing, but more people are telling me: “You are so daring, what are you going to do?” The words are a bit embarrassing.
In my opinion, people always goTo the end, if one day when you are dying on the sickbed, being regarded as synonymous with suffocation and bad luck, when you are respected, how uncomfortable will you feel?
So, this statement has strengthened his determination.
Before you really take care of a dying patient, you need to attend training, which includes both medical care and psychological counseling.
The so-called hospice care refers to the medical care that provides dignity and death after the consent of patients who cannot be cured by medical treatment.
It does not pursue life-sustaining surgery and meaningless treatment that causes pain to the patient, but through the company and care of the hospital, volunteers and family members, helping them to walk towards the end of life safely.
△ Volunteers who are providing peace of mind for dying patients
On the afternoon of Wednesday and Saturday, I will go to the 8th floor of Beijing Haidian Hospital, the tranquil ward of the Department of Oncology and Hematology, to provide volunteer services for those who are about to end the life.
The Haidian Hospital has a total of 191 volunteers, including the employees of state-owned enterprises who want to do good deeds, and the four accountants who want to come to understand the truth of death. They take turns to serve patients in the tranquillity ward. Although they work and age, there is one thing that is consistent, that is, to do something for the dying person.
The most senior volunteer, surnamed Cui, is serving every time, and is also my teacher. She has volunteered here for 4 years, and in her opinion, this is a good thing for good deeds.
△ Scan code registration, you can go to the dying escort
The tranquillity ward is not far from the nurse station, Xiangyang. There are a total of 6 beds in the house, which are spotless. The room is very quiet, quiet to hear the sound of breathing, compared with the general ward, the only difference is that the color of the curtain is pink. Whenever the sun passes through the curtains, the whole house will be covered in warmth.
In the experience of a month of tranquil volunteers, the 6 beds in the ward were changed to 4 people, some were still there last week, and the second week was gone.
The first-time patient I served was a grandmother who lived in 19 beds. Because I was afraid of giving trouble to my child, the tumor of the size of the jujube on the neck became a small ball in less than a year because it was too big. The whole head was pressed to the other side, and even the breathing was weak.
Before I entered the house, the doctor had already informed the family that the grandmother might not be able to hold on to tomorrow. Therefore, we entered the house under the watchful eyes of the whole family to organize her body so that she can be decent.
Because the illness is in bed, my grandmother’s body is full of acne, so we can only help her to wipe her body and cut her hair; I lifted her dry arm and could not feel the temperature and weight, as if it were a dead branch. .The kind of fragility seems to be rude and gentle, and it makes people afraid that her body will be crushed.
When we cleaned up our grandmother, her granddaughter also heard the news, and she wanted to enter the house to see her grandmother. But her father and relatives stopped at the door of the ward and prevented her from entering. They yelled at her: “Just give birth to a child, what are you running?”
So, in order to make my grandmother feel better, take our teacher Cui, open the door and say to the granddaughter: “Are you grandma with a big one?” She nodded with red eyes and was taken to her grandmother.
Under our guidance, the granddaughter carefully calmed her grandmother’s arm with her back and listened to Teacher Cui’s whisper with tears: “Grandma, we will wash your hair now, your granddaughter will accompany you, your family. They are all there. Granddaughters love you, family members love you, you are down-to-earth.”
Although at that time, Grandma couldn’t say anything, she couldn’t even be sure if she had any consciousness; but I was convinced that when she heard this, the corner of her mouth really twitched.
Not only does the patient’s family think so, but the patient itself will be tortured by the hanging sword of death.
When a grandmother is living in peace, her daughter going out to talk to the doctor will cause her anxiety. She is afraid of being a burden to her children, and she is afraid of being abandoned and forgotten by her children. For patients who don’t have much time: Careful care and companionship will definitely make the patient more decent and better, and the quality of life is high.some.
△ When washing the patient’s head, the water temperature should not be too high, the blowing head should not be too fierce, and everything must be carefully prepared
There is a father who just turned into the tranquillity ward and is also in advanced cancer. When the first day arrived, things were not ready. When we saw that we were here, we were happy to talk, saying that our hair was a little long, and we had to manage the hairy spirits every day.
Although his family knows that the father is seriously ill, he does not see the sorrow of the dead. It is like a series of doors. The family sits together every day.
This memory of volunteers in the tranquillity ward is more like a late death education class for me. He taught me that when death is coming, modern medicine is powerless, companionship is also part of the treatment.
△ Washing the water, volunteers are not wasting, generally used for watering flowers
2.Futile Treatment
Maybe in many people’s perceptions, the hospital is the place to save the wounded and dying. The medical staff working here take the dying person back from the hands of death, and they are called due diligence.
But from another perspective, this understanding seems to be somewhat wishful thinking;
Because it’s not you who are lying in the hospital bed, so you don’t realize it. When people are more painful than wanting to live, how much you want to let go.
When I first went to the tranquillity ward to perform volunteer work, I heard the mourning of cancer patients in the corridor: it is not like the voice that people can make, this continuous, high and low shouts are mixed. With fear, pain and despair, you can even read a signal of death.
The doctor next to him said: After he was rescued, he has been called for three days. No one in the same room can fall asleep. This is not simply a matter of loudness or small voice, but a The spread of fear makes people unable to sleep at night.
So, if you think of the dying volunteers as an ordinary person to fill a death education class, then for the medical staff who are used to life and death, the enshrined behind the tranquility is a huge issue.
Futile Treatment, which is invalid treatment.
The so-called invalid medical care means that when this person’s life is about to end, humans use all the most advanced techniques to interfere with life, such as using a cut throat to insert a ventilator, continue to administer medicine, and fight strong. The means of acupuncture, adrenaline, etc., let him forcibly restore vital signs and prolong life.
In the eyes of medical staff, thisIt is not to save the dying of the wounded, but to intervene in life. It is a practice that derogates and is dignified.
This is reflected in the swearing-in ceremony of every doctor in the world before becoming a doctor:
When volunteering, I talked to the doctors around me about the ethical issues of invalid treatment. His story has made me still fresh and unforgettable.
There was a patient at the time, a grandmother, who was in a late stage of cancer and was in a coma. According to the indicators, the doctor judged that the patient could not survive tonight, but that day happened to be the wedding of the patient’s daughter.
According to the process, the doctor asked if they needed first aid. The feedback from the family members is: Today is the day of great joy. If you want to let the old lady take a look, he must be saved.
So, the doctor and his colleagues surrounded the patient for cardiac resuscitation, intubation, drug delivery, adrenaline, and acupuncture.
The doctor recalled this: “We were rescued for hours on the old lady. I felt that her body was shattered; it was all done for them to tell us – just like this.”
He paused: “Sometimes, I think the patient’s family is really selfish.”
This kind of thing happens often in hospitals. Even if it is a doctor who saves people from illness, it is ridiculous. When he gets off work, he often thinks: People are not in their own life.If you die, you have to agree with others.
3. Death and Dignity
You may feel that the story above is too cruel, and that people are “not as good as death.” How many people choose to give up treatment?
It is this traditional concept that makes many people around us lack a correct understanding of death. As a result, the patient’s feelings are rarely considered, and “self-improvement” is a manifestation of “filial piety” or “responsibility”.
This often leads to the death of the patient even if the patient said that he did not want to be rescued at the beginning of the illness. However, many children will continue to give first-aid to the elderly who are seriously ill due to the pressure of public opinion.
△ China’s death quality comprehensive score five-dimensional map
If you are not a seriously ill patient, you will never realize how painful they will be. For example, just recently, Belgian Paralympic champion Marek Fefert chose to euthanasia.
The reason why she will give up her life is because she has a rare spinal disease, she will be awakened when she is sick for less than 10 minutes every day; therefore, she chose a dignified way. relief.
△ Marek-Fairfort
Because of these concepts, medical resources are more focused on curative treatment, while neglecting the dying; this directly leads to the death quality of the Chinese mainland in 2015 (Quality of Death Index) index ranking, the ninth.
In Taiwan, the index ranks first in the quality of death in Asia. The main reason is that death education is doing well.
Local public opinion is not afraid to talk about death, so people have a deeper understanding of the culture of death: Many people overcome the fear of death through the community culture of the death cafe, and truly regard it as a part of life.
In fact, in the eyes of many medical people: hospice care and euthanasia are two ways to maintain the ultimate dignity of the person.
One is to let the patient leave the world with peace and dignity and experience life completely when pain can be controlled by medical treatment. The other is the extreme practice when the patient is afflicted with illness and cannot be avoided. A reasonable choice can improve the quality of life.
Now, as time goes by, people in mainland China are paying more and more attention to death. Although euthanasia has not yet been implemented, dying is becoming more and more important. In June 2019, the second batch of hospice care pilots was launched in the Chinese mainland to improve the quality of life for more patients.
Two days ago, I went to the hospital again and found the doctor who was chatting with me and had dinner. One month of tranquility, let us be friends, and have a taste of food. He told me: Do you know? Your efforts are useful.
What do I say?
The doctor told me that it wasn’t long before I left. An old man was in critical condition on the day he was transferred to the tranquillity ward. He quickly contacted the patient’s family and asked them to come to the last side.
On the phone, when he just finished saying “Your mother’s heart suddenly pauses, we are going to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation for her….” In the first half of the sentence, the old man’s son whispered:
“No, Mom doesn’t want to do this. Let’s go now, help me tell her not to wait for us, we all love her, let her go, she has been very tired in her life.”
References:
01.2015 Quality of Death Index FINAL SC , EIU
02. “General Report on the Status Quo and Policy Research of China’s Urban Hospice Care Services”
03. “Seeing the Courage of Death”, Ira Biak, Gaobao Press
This article is from MicroPublic Number Letter: Dr (ID: doctorx666) X , author: an ugly orange, slag slag County