When have you lived enough?

During that same night, I admitted another nursing home patient for bruising and a history of repeated falls because of syncope -- losing consciousness. Further investigation revealed that he has a bad heart valve. He knew this and had declined repair or replacement of the valve. The poor heart function was causing kidney failure and now disturbing the electric conduction system of his heart. His heart was in danger of going into a fatal rhythm. He could die in his sleep or just walking down the hall, eating or using the bathroom. He was 79 years old and DNR/DNI. While he did not want to have the valve repaired or replaced (the cause of most of his life-threatening troubles), he was not averse to having a defebrillator put it -- a device that would 'shock' his heart back into a rhythm compatible with life if it went into a fatal rhythm.

I tried to explain to him that while this might 'solve' the problem of fainting spells and prevent him from dropping dead suddenly or dying in his sleep, it would do nothing for his failing valve, poor heart function and the resulting kidney damage. In fact, he would worsen and go into heart failure, resulting in fluid building up in his lungs over time and become progressively more short of breath and uncomfortable.

If I had this problem, I would much rather my heart go into a fatal rhythm and kill me instantly rather than my life trickle away with greater discomfort and diminishing quality. Furthermore, as my heart worsened, it would tend to flip into fatal rhythms more often, resulting in me being 'shocked' more often -- doesn't sound good. So my choices would be repair or replace the valve or nothing -- let me die whenever one of those fatal rhythms occur. After explaining this to the patient, he surprised me by saying that my logic sounded clear and that yes, he would like to have the valve replacement surgery.

I guess what surprised me is that this 79 year old gentleman living in a nursing home with no family close by, no wife and not much else wanted to live more and was willing to endure the surgery it would take to make that happen. And then I caught myself. Why was I surprised? I guess I kind of expected him to say that he was 'old' and had lived enough and that he would die someday somehow, so it this was to be way, then so be it. But no.

Of course, I respect his choices and will help him reach his goals, of medically possible. It is a subtle prejudice I need to watch for in myself: deciding when someone has lived enough and should 'throw in the towel'. Who makes that choice: the patient? the physician? the government (who will be paying for all of this in his case since he is on Medicare)? How do you make such a decision? By age? By quality of life? Who determines quality of life? Should we even offer him the surgery just because we can?

I guess we all have to think about the answers.