Diane E. Meier, MD. Arch Intern Med. 2012;172(15):1130-1130.
An 85-year-old woman with multiple medical problems, including dementia, coronary artery disease, renal insufficiency, and peripheral vascular disease, was admitted to our hospital with urosepsis. Her hospital course was complicated by the development of dry gangrene of her left foot, Candida sepsis, Clostridium difficile enterocolitis, and multiple deep sacral and trochanteric pressure ulcers. When housestaff asked her son if he wanted us “to do everything,” he always answered yes. She was able to be weaned from the ventilator and was transferred to a medical unit for continued treatment of hospital-acquired C difficile enterocolitis and wound care of her multiple stage 4 ulcers. She underwent 4 surgical debridements under general anesthesia in the operating room over a several-month period but remained persistently febrile despite continuous treatment with broad spectrum antibiotics.
The patient was withdrawn, tense, and turned toward the wall in a fetal position, but she screamed and cried out for her mother, moaned in pain, and tried to hit and strike out at the nurses when they performed her twice-daily dressing changes. She refused all efforts to feed her or offers of sips of fluid and received all nourishment and hydration through her feeding tube. She did not respond to the voice or touch of her son or grandsons when they visited.
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