Because 60% of Americans die in acute care hospitals, 20% in nursing homes and only 20% at home. Its as american as apple pie to die of old age in the ICU.
I say this as a bitter CVICU RN where our unit census average age is often older than the Senate 78, 77, 88, often after massive cardiac surgeries, and of course age is the most heavily influential factor for how patients do, so we get a lot of 6 months of being on full mechanical support (vented, ECMO, CRRT, etc etc) while the family fuckin hems and haws before reaching their obviously inevitable conclusion to pull the plug , like there was ever any other choice. But not before theyre out of their mind from pain, get intractably delirious from sleep loss/pain, lose all manner of body function (dignity 0% loooong ago), and get every infection known to man.
This is how people die in America. they become one big bedsore before they go, because no one has an advance directive and they think their family or loved one will come through. fucking lol. With a decent amount of sedation, on ECMO and a vent, You can be an opportunity for people to practice IVs and shit on for months though before you go, so there's that.
You learn quickly working in a high-acuity ICU that there's a million things worse than death, and nothing about medical care is painless, its all actually quite brutal and unrefined.
Do your advance directive. Don't rely on others, doesn't matter what they say now.
In the future, I'm hoping it can be attached to getting your license or some other common administrative task.
I'm editing my post to clarify one last point: Family 100% cannot override the patients explicit instructions as written. That is flat out false, and if done, is illegal. It happens, but know it shouldn't
TAAT January 21, 2022
TAAT™ GLOBAL ALTERNATIVES INC. (CSE: TAAT) (OTCQX: TOBAF) (FRANKFURT: 2TP) (the “Company” or “TAAT™”) announces that in 2022 it is commencing a targeted in-store activation strategy for national gas station chains in the United States, a key retail segment for the tobacco industry that represents a steadily growing share of TAAT™ retailers. In its January 18, 2022 press release the Company stated its plan to enhance in-store activation strategies to further strengthen its volume of repeat orders. TAAT™ has elected to place a specialized focus on developing in-store activation tactics to engage smokers aged 21+ in gas stations where tobacco products are sold, as the relatively standard in-store experience of purchasing tobacco in gas stations could allow for such tactics to be scaled rapidly across the United States without significant modification.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/taat-begins-focused-initiative-store-210100156.html
