Patient with metastatic breast cancer
Submitted by GPH on Fri, 2009-10-30 14:04
79 year old female with stage 4 metastatic breast cancer and poor prognosis presented with progressively worsening shortness of breath. Chest XR revealed evidence of left-sided pneumonia with lung consolidation(click on image above). The patient requested a "full code" including intubation.
poll:
SHOULD THIS PATIENT BE INTUBATED?
Yes
30.8% (4 votes)
No
69.2% (9 votes)
This is a sad case. A patient with stage 4 metastatic breast cancer should simply not have the phrase "full code" in their vocabulary. Once again, I think that we as physicians need to do a better job with end of life discussions.