Fourteen hours ago a friend called an ambulance for her husband (they’re both in their early 80s) who has been eking out his existence with home-based palliative care since opting for a better quality of life by NOT continuing with kidney dialysis.
His condition worsened greatly & last I heard he was in the Emergency Section of a big suburban public hospital. There will only be two reasons for him to leave that section: either a bed in the hospital’s Palliative Care area has been made available or if he dies while waiting for such a bed.
He and his wife have been making plans on a day-to-day basis for the last 18 months as his kidney function wavers & wobbles between a high of 11% and a more common 7% level.
The fact that he still lives after all his other medical conditions is due more to sheer stubbornness & bloodymindedness than to any medical procedure.