How do doctors determine the amount of time a terminally ill patient has left?
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An experienced and attentive hospice nurse is the best guess-timator of time left. More accurate than doctors who do not usually attend the last moments. Hospice nurses also know how to make it as easy as possible for the patient.
They go by the recent past history of the patient (what is the rate of decline in the recent days/weeks, fast or slow), current symptoms and a lot of experience.
I’ve had some remarkably accurate guesses from hospice nurses. From months, weeks, days to hours. Even to ‘any moment now’.
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