Often, older adults have told me stories of doctors and/or hospital staff who ignored the refusal of life-prolonging care wishes of a now-deceased loved one. They tell me that they had insisted that their loved one did not want life-prolonging treatment, but nonetheless a doctor ordered feeding tubes, ventilators, and other life-prolonging measures. I have wondered—is this fear of wrongful resuscitation real or imagined? The short answer appears to be that the fear is real.
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