Mapping the process of ICU care delivery to improve treatment decisions in acute respiratory failure

Reconsidering the Language of Serious Illness

“…For example, the daughter of a woman with advanced cancer who died in the intensive care unit told us she went along with a plan to intubate her mother because the physician called and told her, "Either your mom needs to be on a ventilator or she's going to die today." 1 Despite her mother's clear assertion that having life sustained by a ventilator was unacceptable, the daughter felt intubation was the right thing to do because the physician was "making the best calls for my mom." After all, why would a patient's family member consider withholding intubation when the physician said it was needed?…”