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The Rights of Elderly Patients

Posted by Stuart at 05:18 PM on March 19, 2006

A very good Thai friend of mine has been giving me daily updates about his Grandfather here in Thailand, who had to go to the hospital recently for some kind of minor surgery.

The surgery went well, but during the operation, somehow the doctor found out that the old man has cancer. The outlook is not good; the man is very weak already, and the doctor doesn't think that he would be able to survive the major operation that would be needed to remove the cancer.

This happens all the time around the world, I would imagine. But where the story gets strange (to me) is that the doctor didn't tell the old man that he had cancer. He didn't tell the man's wife either. Instead, he told the man's children and asked them what he should do.

They conferred amongst themselves, and decided that they would not share the diagnosis with the old man or his wife. They reason that the news would be too much for him to take. The news might even do the fatal work faster than the cancer. Besides, there is nothing that can be done anyway.

All of this was told to me very matter-of-factly. But am I the only one who thinks it is odd to withhold a medical diagnosis from a patient, for the reason of being "too old to handle the news"?

I told my friend that if I had a fatal disease, no matter if it could be cured or not, and found out after I died, I would not be happy!