How do doctors determine the amount of time a terminally ill patient has left?
In: 330
MD here.
There are 2 categories in my mind:
1. The acutely ill patient. Imagine someone who is very old, on a lot of medication to support their blood pressure, have a very bad infection and they are still in critical condition. There is not a lot left to be able to do and in these patients it is usually fairly accurate as in hours to day(s).
2. The chronically ill. Think cancer patient, neuromuscular disease, etc. You can estimate based on number of factors. Blood work, ability to eat/drink, # of ED visits in last several weeks, amount of pain meds needed, etc. Based on all these you can see a trend that is irreversible. These patients usually get the days to weeks to months diagnosis. Sometimes these category outlasts the estimate.
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