What Broke My Father’s Heart
How putting in a pacemaker wrecked a family’s life. When (the doctor) suggested the pacemaker for the second time, my father was too stroke-damaged to discuss, and perhaps even to weigh, his tradeoffs. The decision fell to my mother — anxious to relieve my father’s pain, exhausted with caregiving, deferential to doctors and no expert on high-tech medicine. She said yes. One of the most important medical decisions of my father’s life was over in minutes.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/20/magazine/20pacemaker-t.html
Abnormal Test Results May Not Get to Patients
If you think your doctor will automatically tell you if you have an abnormal test result, think again. Researchers studying office procedures among primary care physicians found evidence that more than 7 percent of clinically significant findings were never reported to the patient.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/23/health/23patient.html
Prostate Test Found to Save Few Lives
The PSA blood test, used to screen for prostate cancer, saves few lives and leads to risky and unnecessary treatments for large numbers of men, two large studies have found. But it has been difficult to know whether finding prostate cancer early saves lives. Most of the cancers tend to grow very slowly and are never a threat and, with the faster-growing ones, even early diagnosis might be too late.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/19/health/19cancer.html?ref=health
Body for the Ages
Body for the Ages – Look around and it’s easy to see how you don’t want to age. When it comes to quality of life, unless your genetically blessed you have to take the initiative. Here is a good start.
Abnormal Test Results May Not Get to Patients
Research published in the journal Neurology, finds that being too thin in later years-especially for those who lose weight rapidly or who had been overweight-may well be an early sign of dementia.
