By Dr. Jessica Nutik Zitter Source: The New York Times OAKLAND, Calif. — I WAS leafing through a patient’s chart last year when a colleague tapped me on the shoulder. “I have a patient who is asking about the End of Life Option Act,” he said in a low voice. “Can we even do that here?” I practice [...]
By Dr. Jessica Nutik Zitter Souce: The New York Times FIVE years ago, I taught sex education to my daughter Tessa’s class. Last week, I taught death education to my daughter Sasha’s class. In both cases, I didn’t really want to delegate the task. I wanted my daughters and the other children in the class to know about [...]
By Dr. Jessica Nutik Zitter Source: The New York Times Well Blog There was absolutely no way around it. She was dying. I gave her a few hours at best, with maximum pedal to the metal intensive medical care. Paramedics had picked up this homeless woman after she collapsed under a bridge in Oakland, Calif. Her heart had [...]
By Dr. Jessica Nutik Zitters Source: The New York Times As I rushed through the hospital lobby on my way to the intensive care unit, I saw the palliative care team speaking to a young woman in a wheelchair. She was beautiful, her cheeks full and round, her mouth in a constant soft smile as she spoke. She [...]
By Dr. Jessica Nutik Zitter Source: The New York times The patient’s heart was barely contracting under my ultrasound probe, like a limp handshake. He was in shock, his ineffective heartbeat unable to maintain the pressure necessary to keep his organs alive. And now he was on full life support on my service in the intensive care unit. [...]
By Dr. Jessica Nutik Zitter Source: The New York Times Opinionator In trying to honor Vincent’s autonomy, we abandoned him in hell. A decade ago, as a doctor in the intensive care unit at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey in Newark, I met Vincent — I’m using this name to protect his privacy — [...]
By Dr. Jessica Nutik Zitter Source: New York Times Well Blog The patient had dementia and could no longer swallow. The intricate workings of the muscles of her throat were failing, and she was no longer able to move food or liquids reliably into her stomach. Instead, they too frequently ended up in her lungs, and she drowned a little [...]
By Dr. Jessica Nutik Zitter Source: New York Times Well Blog Our patient was never going to wake up. He had an unrecoverable brain injury. The prognosis had become clear over time. As the patient’s attending physician in the intensive care unit, I arranged a meeting with his sister, the only visitor we’d seen for days, and explained. She [...]
By Dr. Jessica Nutik Zitter Source: New York Times Well Blog Sadly, but with conviction, I recently removed breathing tubes from three patients in intensive care. As an I.C.U. doctor, I am trained to save lives. Yet the reality is that some of my patients are beyond saving. And while I can use the tricks of my trade to [...]
By Dr. Jessica Nutik Zitter Source: New York Times Well Blog The patient had a severe pneumonia of advanced AIDS. He’d been lying in our intensive care unit for three weeks, a breathing tube thrust into his raw airway, his face a mixture of pain and resignation. His weakened lung tissue had popped in several areas, requiring chest tubes [...]
