I was rewatching an old video on YouTube and the guy was able to walk again after 10 months of practicing yoga and losing 140 lbs. If no one on earth can exactly predict when someone will die or if they’ll be able to walk again, how and why do doctors come up with these predictions?
https://youtu.be/qX9FSZJu448
In: Mathematics
Doctor here. It all depends on what they’re dying from. A lot of the mortality predictions come from cancer research – from large studies you can say that median survival is 3 years, ie if we took a hundred people in your situation, half would die before 3 years, the other half would live longer. If it’s a dialysis patient, you expect about a week after they stop dialysis. In my experience patients don’t often ask as much as you’d think. Often it’s family members towards the end of life. I also use the “crystal ball” phrase. It’s common to say things like “long weeks to short months”. In the last stages of dying, it can be quite variable from long hours to weeks. Once someone stops eating and starts sleeping most of the day, you’re talking within days. Once they develop a pattern of breathing called Cheyn Stokes, it’s a day or two
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