Moral distress at the end of a life: when family and clinicians don’t agree on implantable cardioverter-defibrillator deactivation

A 63-year-old man with end-stage ischemic cardiomyopathy presented with incessant ventricular tachycardia. He had been hospitalized multiple times in the past year for severe heart failure. As he approached end-of-life and was regularly receiving defibrillator shocks, his care team recommended deactivation of his implantable cardioverter-defibrillator. However, his family did not wish to allow deactivation, reporting a religious obligation to prolong his life, regardless of the risk of suffering.

http://ift.tt/2zLR6Rp