pros and cons of life support
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pros and cons of life support
What Is Life Support?
The term “ Life support” refers to any combination of machines and medication that keeps a person’s body alive when their organs would otherwise stop working.
Usually people use the words life support to refer to a mechanical ventilation machine that helps you breathe even if you’re too injured or sick for your lungs to keep working.
Another cause for the need of a ventilator is a brain injury that doesn’t allow the person to protect their airway or initiate breaths effectively.
Life support is what gives doctors the ability to perform complicated surgeries. It can also prolong life for people who are recovering from traumatic injuries. Life support can also become a permanent necessity for some people to stay alive.
There are many people who have portable ventilators and continue to live a relatively normal life. However, people who are using a life-support device don’t always recover. They may not regain the ability to breathe and function on their own.
If a person on a ventilator is in a long-term state of unconsciousness, this can put family members in the difficult situation of choosing whether their loved one should continue to live in an unconscious state with the help of the machine.
Is a Ventilator Considered Life Support?
Many people ask, “What is life support?” but they still find them confused. One common question is “Is a ventilator considered life support?” The answer is yes. A ventilator is basically a machine specially designed to help a patient keep breathing. Its basic function is to keep oxygen flowing throughout your body by pushing more air into your lungs that may not be functioning properly due to a condition like pneumonia. You may need to be on a ventilator if you’re a victim of lung failure.
When Is Life Support Needed?
You usually need life support when any of the following systems stop functioning properly.
- Lungs: You may require life support in cases of pneumonia, near-drowning, drug overdose, and a severe lung disease such as cystic fibrosis or COPD. You may also need life support when suffering from a nerve disease such as ALS.
- Heart: You will require immediate assistance and life support in case of a heart attack or sudden cardiac arrest.
- Brain: You will require life support if you get a severe blow to your head.
List of the Pros of Life Support
Extends life with the possibility of recovery
The challenge with life support is that the situation is not always black and white, leading to confusion and indecision. Life support allows you to live longer, which may mean that it gives you more time to consider your options.
Depending on your diagnosis and prognosis, there might be other treatment options to consider, which takes time to process. There could be the possibility that recovery may not bring you to your previous level of functioning but to a place you are willing to accept. Asking questions about the kind of end-of-life care that you want is critical at this point and can help you forge a path forward.
Some people are unwilling to accept a lower level of functioning and a dependence on life support, and others are. Your decisions about this are yours to discuss with family and friends and are to be respected and honored.
Allows time with family
Life support can buy you time to be with family and also allow your family to process what is happening to you. You may decide that life support is temporary and that you will request a withdrawal at a time of your choosing. This decision allows the family time to say goodbye, be with you without time constraints, and come to terms with your death.
Family and friends who live at a distance have the time to travel to see you. You can also use this time to access spiritual counsel of your choosing.
Grant a patient’s wishes
Some people who have written a living will usually specify their express wish to be allowed to fight every minute of their illness, regardless of the pain and suffering that they go through. Even when a similar request is given verbally, it is the surrogate’s duty to carry out a patient’s wish. It is in their best interest, after all. The only downside to this situation is that it will be difficult to determine when enough is enough. When is the right time to pull the plug? Take for instance the case of Elaine Esposito who never woke up from her appendectomy. She was on life support for over 36 years but eventually died. This is a very long time of waiting and fighting for everyone concerned.
The only time that a debate about life support is unnecessary is when a family member has a DNR in place. Even then, the decision to follow a love one’s request would be difficult. In the event that a person fails to verbalize his wishes beforehand, loved ones would have to look into a patient’s overall attitude regarding life support.
Organ donation
The case of a 6-month old baby in Florida who is on life support may be horrible and heartbreaking, especially for the parents, but there is a silver lining in the midst of the grief and shock. This is because Owen Skodje’s misfortune could be some other child’s fortune. According to his parents, he will be providing his material shell to help heal others, giving them the gift of life.
Organ donation is probably the most positive aspect of life support. This gives surrogates the opportunity to help others, despite the grief and the loss of a loved one. There are thousands of people just waiting for organ donors, and patients on life-sustaining treatments could be their only chance at a new lease on life.
List of Cons of Life Support
Prolonged suffering
Prolonged suffering is a critical concern when there are no advance directives in place, and someone is in a vegetative state. Families may insist on life support with the hope (reasonable or not) that their loved one will recover. Meanwhile, it is impossible to know if the person on life support is in pain or discomfort because they can’t express it.
There have been many high-profile cases, such as the Terri Schiavo case,
where Terri was in an irreversible persistent vegetative state. Her husband was her legal guardian and asserted that she did not want life support if there was no hope for recovery. Terri’s parents challenged Terri’s medical diagnosis, and the legal battle went on for seven years before Terri’s feeding tube was finally removed.
Devastating side effects
There are different life support treatments to help prolong the life of a patient. There are medical devices to aid breathing, provide food and water, and for administering medications. But they all have benefits and disadvantages. In some cases, they alleviate one condition but exacerbate another. Artificial nutrition and hydration, for instance, use tubes that can damage the esophagus, stomach, intestine, and even erode the lining of nasal passage. When surgery is needed to insert the tubes, the risk of bleeding or infection is high. When fluid leaks out of intravenous lines and on to the skin, it can also lead to inflammation and infection. Overly frail patients are also at risk of fluid overload that may lead to difficulty in breathing, and dangerous infections when TPN enters the blood stream.
Cramps, diarrhea and abdominal bloating may also happen to patients receiving artificial nutrition and hydration through NG or G-Tube. What’s worse, because patients are brain dead and would be unable to report any discomfort or illness, their condition could worsen when they are not given careful attention by health care providers.
Ventilators, on the other hand, are good while a patient is using it. It is only when it is removed that side effects are likely to manifest, especially when there are sedatives used. Discontinued use of a ventilator can result in a drop in blood pressure, abnormal heartbeat, weakened muscles, busted ear drums, dental problems, or severe respiratory problems.
Possibility of Aggravation of Condition
Some of the critics of life support say that although it has some benefits, it can also worsen the condition of patients and can result to dehydration, sores, cramps and respiratory problems. There are cases when the patient suffers more pain from the process like when tube is inserted. Some patients are not well taken care of
while in life support since caregivers are busy with other matters or become complacent their patient is being
supported mechanically.
The discussion about life support will always be a controversial one because of the numerous cases documented
over the years but people will always be divided about it. Nevertheless, it has advantages and disadvantages.
Financial Burden
When a patient is in life support, it entails expenses. In some cases, it depletes the resources of families who have dying patients in mechanical support. Aside from the expenses of being in life support, there are also medicines and doctors to pay.
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