Categories
pandemic

100% True Things Told to Me by Family Members of Patients in the ICU, #1

“It doesn’t take a doctor to figure this out.” —a daughter, referring to her treatment plan for her mother that she has figured out after some time on the internet. FYI, her plan to fix her 96 y/o critically ill mother with covid19 who has been on a ventilator for 2 weeks and is 7 (out of 10) days through the severely ill Remdesivir clinical trial but now has to “pause” the antiviral treatment due to kidney failure: “just keep giving her the Remdesivir and then cure her kidneys with Lasix.”

I spent 2.5 hours on the phone with 2 different daughters because of this foolhardy notion. The problem is: I can explain clinical trials, multi-system organ failure, creatinine/GFR, and the mechanism of Lasix till I’m blue in the face. But A) they still won’t understand, and B) it won’t help them come to terms with the impending death of their mother and begin the grieving process. Still, I tried to help with both those things. There was one moment, when I paused to let a message sink in. And one of the daughters drew a shaky breath, followed by only silence. In that moment, I’m hopeful something got through.