How Doctors die. It’s not like the rest of us (2016)
Points and comments are a snapshot, not live.
Doctors often refuse aggressive end-of-life treatments they routinely prescribe for others, preferring comfort.
Ken Murray, a retired family doctor, recounts how doctors die more peacefully than most patients. They know modern medicine's limits: CPR, chemo, and surgery at life's end often cause suffering without benefit. Murray describes cases like a surgeon with pancreatic cancer (Charlie) who declined treatment and lived months comfortably. He argues that patients' unrealistic expectations, doctors' fear of litigation, and a fee-for-service system drive futile care. Hospice often provides better outcomes and even longer survival. Murray's cousin Torch, with terminal lung cancer, spent eight months enjoying food and Disneyland on only $20 in medication.
The article notes that while many think of CPR as a lifesaver, Murray saw only one patient walk out of the ER after CPR-a healthy man with a tension pneumothorax.
What commenters are saying
Commenters heavily debated the article's portrayal of CPR. Several noted that early CPR (within 2 minutes) and AED use dramatically improve survival rates, with one citing 50% survival for shocks under 5 minutes, versus ~10% overall for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. The original article's claim that only 1 in hundreds survived was challenged as misleading for emphasizing rare success rather than baseline efficacy. Others highlighted the difficulty of enforcing DNR orders, noting that keeping someone alive against their wishes is rarely punished compared to homicide, and that institutional inertia often trumps advance directives. A few shared personal stories of CPR success or its brutal reality.