Advertisement

More than half of randomly surveyed adults in the US survey - 57 percent - said God's intervention could save a family member even if physicians declared treatment would be futile. And nearly three-quarters said patients have a right to demand such treatment.

When asked to imagine their own relatives being gravely ill or injured, nearly 20 percent of doctors and other medical workers said God could reverse a hopeless outcome.

"Sensitivity to this belief will promote development of a trusting relationship" with patients and their families, according to researchers. That trust, they said, is needed to help doctors explain objective, overwhelming scientific evidence showing that continued treatment would be worthless.

How the survey was done
The survey, in the Archives of Surgery, involved 1 000 US adults randomly selected to answer questions by telephone about their views on end-of-life medical care. They were surveyed in 2005, along with 774 doctors, nurses and other medical workers who responded to mailed questions.

Survey questions mostly dealt with untimely deaths from trauma such as accidents and violence. These deaths are often particularly tough on relatives because they are more unexpected than deaths from lingering illnesses such as cancer, and the patients tend to be younger.

Dr Lenworth Jacobs, a University of Connecticut surgery professor and trauma chief at Hartford Hospital, was the lead author. He said trauma treatment advances have allowed patients who previously would have died at the scene to survive longer.

That shift means hospital trauma specialists "are much more heavily engaged in the death process", he said.

Doctors must respect religious beliefs
Jacobs said he frequently meets people who think God will save their dying loved one and who want medical procedures to continue.

"You can't say, 'That's nonsense.' You have to respect that" and try to show them X-rays, CAT scans and other medical evidence indicating death is imminent, he said.

Relatives need to know that "it's not that you don't want a miracle to happen, it's just that is not going to happen today with this patient", he said.

Families occasionally persist and hospitals have gone to court seeking to stop medical treatment doctors believe is futile, but such cases are quite rare.

Religion vs. realism?
Dr Michael Sise, trauma medical director at Scripps Mercy Hospital in San Diego, called the study "a great contribution" to one of the most intense issues doctors face.

Sise, a Catholic doctor working in a Catholic hospital, said miracles don't happen when medical evidence shows death is near. "That's just not a realistic situation," he said.

He recalled a teenager severely injured in a gang beating who died soon afterward at his hospital. The mother "absolutely did not want to withdraw" medical equipment despite the severity of her child's brain injuries, which ensured she would never wake up, Sise said. "The mom was playing religious tapes in the room, and obviously was very focused on looking for a miracle."

Claudia McCormick, a nurse and trauma program director at Duke University Hospital, said she also has never seen that kind of miracle. But her niece's recovery after being hit by a boat while inner-tubing earlier this year came close.

The boat backed into her and its propeller "caught her in the side of the head. She had no pulse when they pulled her out of the water," McCormick said. Doctors at the hospital where she was airlifted said "it really doesn't look good."

And while it never reached the point where withdrawing lifesaving equipment was discussed, McCormick recalled one of her doctors saying later: '"God has plans for this child. I never thought she'd be here."'

Need to give families time to cope
Like many hospitals, Duke uses a team approach to help relatives deal with dying trauma victims, enlisting social workers, grief counsellors and chaplains to work with doctors and nurses.

If the family still says, "We just can't shut that machine off, then, you know what, we can't shut that machine off," McCormick said. "Sometimes," she said, "you might have a family that's having a hard time and it might take another day, and that's OK." – (Sapa, August 2008)

Read more:
Quit booze, get spiritual
Psychiatrists not all religious
 

Print this article on

Rate this article Poor 1 2 3 4 5 Excellent

	God vs Medical 2008/08/19 03:29:00 PM We all die one day anyway. Therefore what is more important than trying to save your own skin now, is living a good life so that you can enjoy the priveledge of being in the next life... which is eternal and of more importance. - deon   Hmmm... 2008/08/19 03:30:32 PM And let a patient that might actually be saved by the machine die because it' s got a lost cause hooked up to it? - CTheB   come on 2008/08/19 03:42:43 PM Give it a rest, please. It can be incredibly difficult to make that decision - shock and grief can make people cling to their beliefs. It' s all very clever and clinical to say something cutting and practical - if you have ever been in that situation it isn' t funny or smart at all. Show a little grace. - Jo   Despite medical advances... 2008/08/19 04:38:49 PM the death rate holds steady at 100%... - Christo   Miracles? 2008/08/20 09:58:27 AM Look, its natural for people like the mother losing her son to hold onto any hope that he might return, for some people its witchdoctors, for some people its religion and for some only the doctors but its important to realise that in reality all the prayers and supplications, while perhaps internally useful to the deluded and/or desperate will have zero impact on the actual sufferer - only human intervention can alter the course of injury or sickness and people should grow up and realise this. - Warren   @Deon 2008/08/20 10:05:09 AM Oh please, what a load of drivel. There is not one iota, not one scintilla of evidence that anything other than non-existence awaits us after death - by plying your snake-oil religious claptrap on here you encourage people to waste a perfectly good life, the only one we will ever have, hankering after the hereafter. Instead of wasting precious time being pseudo-sanctimonious and holier than thou - once people realise truly how short a time of consciousness we have the sooner they can enjoy it. - Warren   Hope @Warren 2008/08/20 10:34:20 AM Living a fatalistic life so devoid of hope. Now THATS what I call a wasted life... If life' s so short and you have nothing to look forward to whats the point? If life is pointless why don' t we all go sit under a tree and wait for the inevitable? No thanks my friend. Its not all as hopeless as you make it out to be. - Balbyter   When all hope is gone 2008/08/20 10:38:03 AM When a doctor tells you there is nothing they can do... what else is there but blind faith/hope? While it' s not going to happen, what is the harm in that final hope? - Robert   Pascals wager 2008/08/20 10:55:27 AM Say there is a 50% chance there is a god with a heaven and a hell.And 50% chance that there is no afterlife and our being ends when we die.Would it not be better to live a religous life and go to heaven than living a life of earthly pleasures/doing what you please and going to hell(eternal suffering) or ending in nothing?you decide - Hendrik   @ Deon 2008/08/20 11:31:01 AM Hi, I' m back. I' ll start with you. You are living a life according to Pascal’ s wager. If you actually read the bible you would see that the life you describe is not the way into heaven. If you live like you say you do, then you are going to hell anyway! Lucky for you though there is no heaven or hell. Knowing the truth makes you feel so much more alive than any imaginary being in your head could. - JohnS   Do not call God a liar!! 2008/08/20 11:37:53 AM I really feel sorry for those that profess that they don' t believe that there is a living God. Let me tell you that when a Dr tells you that you are suffering from lung cancer, you will quickly change your tune. Without the knowledge that I have been safed by a living, loving and caring God who had given his Son to die on Galvery for my sins, I would have given up on live long ago. Remember God loves you. Go to Him in prayer and he will accept you in His arms and carry you through. He loves You. - JJ   @ Balbyter 2008/08/20 11:39:35 AM What is so hopeless about a life without a god? I feel honoured that all my ancestors from the first form of life were survivors. While weaker species died out your and my biological ancestors evolved to where we are now. Hope without god comes from passing on our good genes to make stronger more sophisticated and intelligent humans, the fact that I get a chance to carry on the evolutionary tree makes me feel more alive than any flying spaghetti monster god ever could. - JohnS   @ JJ 2008/08/20 11:49:06 AM No it' s actually intelligent people that are open minded and free from the shackles of religion that feel sorry for you. I would never call god a lair because that would mean he actually existed. I call xtians lairs for pushing their ludicrous beliefs onto our impressionable children. A man almost dies of a heart attack  his friends said they prayed for him so he replied " Did u slaughter a goat too?"  Fact is less people than you think turn to god at a time of distress. That’ s life, deal with it! - JohnS   @ Hendrik 2008/08/20 12:08:45 PM Read comment @Deon. Who says you are not worshiping the wrong god? What if zeus is the true god or allah or any of the hindu gods or the rest of the greek gods? All of a sudden your 50/50 Pascal' s wager becomes much less than a 1% chance you have the right god. Didn' t think of that, did you? Your logic and Pascal' s is flawed my friend. - JohnS   @Hendrik and ROFLMAO Pascal' s " Wager"  2008/08/20 12:19:29 PM What a load of nonsense. - Warren   JohnS said it all 2008/08/20 12:21:14 PM Listen to JohnS, here' s a guy who knows what he is talking about. - Warren   @JJ 2008/08/20 12:26:35 PM If your god wrote the bible my friend, he is not only a liar but much more, try jealous and proud of it  a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak  a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser  a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully (These wonderfully descriptive adjectives courtesy of richard Dawkins) - Thus if I had lung cancer the last entity I would want near me is your god. - Warren   Evolutionary contribution @ Johns 2008/08/20 12:30:19 PM Evolution in itself has become a religion that is not even fully supported by science. The THEORY of evolution has not been proved as fact and there are just as much research rejecting it as supporting it. Even someone as enlightened as you must then accept that there are other possibilities. Darwin' s theory tries preclude the existance of God. He later confessed serious issues with his research. Do some research on irreducible systems in nature and what that implies for the THEORY of evolution. - Balbyter   Religion, God? 2008/08/20 12:41:40 PM People all you disbelievers in the one and only living God, must catch a very quick wake-up! Or else you are going to be crying into eternity. Who created us? Who created your breath? Only one God of miracles and Life. If seen so many turn-arounds after people were declared gone. These were results of Believe, Trust, Grace and Mercy! Luckely there is still time to turn around. - G   It must be nice 2008/08/20 12:47:12 PM To be so sure of your position that you can forego all charity, all kindness and all empathy - that' s great. What a breakthrough for the human race. There is no God, we are but sentient pieces of meat - okay, but then why are we even arguing? As for Dawkins description of how he sees God - what amazing qualities he ascribes to a nothing.... if there is no God then what do those qualities matter? You could say that kindness and self-sacrifice are human qualities, but so are all the others. - Jo   Circular argument 2008/08/20 12:50:30 PM Believe whatever you want - it' s okay and it' s still legal around here. Heaven, valhalla, worms, nothingness, nirvana - believe any of it. No-one has the right to reach inside your heart and mess with it. Just remember one thing - no-one EVER changed anyone' s mind by screaming: " YOU' RE STUPID, YOU' RE STUPID.."  - Jo   @ Balbyter 2008/08/20 01:59:07 PM Just in case you forgot this is a definition of religion: a strong belief in a supernatural power. Evolution is not supernatural belief. Irreducible complexity as you say is an “ Intelligent”  Design argument from ignorance and it lacks biological understanding. Now you do some research on genealogy and DNA. I bet you believe the earth is only 6000 years old and fossils were planted there by god. Evolution is as real as you and me. How do you dismiss the evidence? - JohnS   @ G 2008/08/20 02:16:11 PM Why the same comments all the time? It does get tiring  at least Balbyter tired something new. You think god is merciful? Read the bible, read the contradictions, read how cruel your god really is. I personally don' t like the idea of being in a relationship with a child murdering, massacring god. I think I' m better person than that. Oh and there is no hell so I’ ll be just fine don’ t you worry. - JohnS   @ Jo 2008/08/20 02:21:53 PM Who are you aiming the comment at? " To be so sure of your position that you can forego all charity, all kindness and all empathy"  What are you going on about? - JohnS   @Balbyter 2008/08/20 02:28:32 PM hmmm, lets see (1) Evolution is scientific fact not theory (2) There is no credible objective peer-reviewed scientific evidence that contradicts evolution, none (3) Darwin had no serious issues with his theory - he never relented (4) There are no irriducible systems in nature - If you are referring Behe' s argument - it has been peer reviewed, rejected and disproved (ref: Kitzmiller court case). Behe and co. cannot accept evolution because of a pre-existing xtian belief they have no objectivity. - Warren   @G 2008/08/20 02:44:51 PM I used to be as deluded as the Gs, Balbyters and Jos of this world until I discovered the christ story was borrowed (in its entirety) from previous and contemporary gods - I mean everything the virgin, inn, star, shepherds, wise men, massacre, egypt, teachings, excorsisms, healings, temptations, trial, last supper, communion, betrayal, death, ressurection, ascension and return - all of it cobbled together by misguided " devotees"  and it became the admittedly successful myth of xtianity, its bunk! - Warren   Deluded 2008/08/20 03:49:36 PM My delusion, my choice - I have no problem with evolution and adaptation, but I choose to believe in God. It seriously beats believing in man. As for all of the teachings being borrowed - I wonder why every culture had their own version of this story? It serves something in us and I' m happy to satisfy that part of my make-up. The hospital room of a dying child would be a dumb place to hold this debate (the actual premise of this article). - Jo   @Jo 2008/08/20 04:02:32 PM Well Jo, believe in whatever you please, if you want to believe pink tree fairies paint the sky blue every morning that is absolutely your business - (incidentally there is more evidence for them than the existence of god) but accept that your belief has no rational basis other than your desire / feeling. My real gripe is with the weeping wailing god squad who seek to save our mortal soul with their religious ramblings particularly targeting vulnerable people suffering loss, it’ s unconscionable. - Warren   suffering loss 2008/08/20 04:08:58 PM Thanks for permission, Warren! I would never claim a rational basis for my faith - that' s exactly the POINT of a faith (?). The article is about the people who are actually suffering the loss themselves - hence probably their weeping and wailing. It' s important to keep one' s eye on the actual topic - else one can sound like a politician simply using any and every opportunity to lobby for ones own cause. - Jo   @Jo 2008/08/20 04:38:48 PM Deon was the one that went off topic first telling everyone about the " next life... which is eternal" . As usual xtians get their happy clappy hands on anything and shove their beliefs in our faces. On topic then, if people believe there will be a miracle then why do they still want the medical treatment to continue? If god can save anyone at anytime (miracle) then surely he wouldn' t rely on insignificant human medicine? Ask yourself one question, why doesn' t god heal amputees? - JohnS   2008/08/22 11:20:29 PM -   2008/08/25 09:52:38 AM -   2008/08/26 07:55:11 PM -
	Name Email Subject Comment Characters:    /500

JOBS

Senior Secretary Gauteng - North/Sandton Infrastructure Resource Gauteng - Johannesburg Management Accountant R450,000-500,000 Per Annum Cost To Company Gauteng - Johannesburg Financial Manager R350,000-400,000 Per Annum Cost To Company Gauteng - Johannesburg Financial and Project Accountant R300,000-360,000 Per Annum Cost To Company Gauteng - Johannesburg Financial Accountant R380,000-420,000 Per Annum Cost To Company Gauteng - Johannesburg SSIS Business Intelligence Specialists (SSIS; SSAS) R350,000-500,000 Per Annum Cost To Company Gauteng - North/Sandton Financial Accountant R350,000-450,000 Per Annum Cost To Company Gauteng - South Find more jobs Register your CV Post a job