A man in his seventies is diagnosed with metastatic prostate cancer, and is enrolled in a palliative chemotherapy program. As the man's primary care physician you're having a hard time getting the man to cope with his situation. He has not informed his family about his diagnosis. He has confined himself to his home, refuses to come to you for consultation, and only rarely answers the phone. You've started making weekly home visits to check up on his well-being, which he begrudgingly accepts. He complains that his family doesn't care and expresses the wish to "just die in peace".
The last two weeks he has stopped answering his door. You confer with the man's oncologist, which tells you that the he still shows up for chemotherapy at the local hostpital, but that they have not heard from him in a couple of weeks. The oncologist suggests that "someone" should break the man's door down and see if he's still alive. Not wanting to disrespect a dying old man's privacy and wish to be left alone, you struggle with what to do.
Thoughts?
Image credit: 2create@Flickr
On one hand, I'd say that dead people have no dignity anymore, since they aren't aware of, really, anything.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, you have no way of knowing that he actually died, compared to being reclusive and secretive. Busting in on him suddenly would at best scare the living daylights out of him.
So busting down the door would be like some kind of quantum-privacy-violation. You don't know if it's the wrong thing to do until it's already too late.
Mayhaps someone should do a less intrusive thing, peer into a window or two. A less drastic, less foot-in-the-mouth means of determining.
Hah -- now I wish I had titled the post 'Schrödingers Gomer' ;)
ReplyDeleteI agree that a less obtrusive way of investigating the apartment would be preferable. In this case peering in windows proves impractical given the man's third floor apartment. Other tenants and the janitor have not seen him for a while.
Ab idea that just occurred to me: Maybe one could go all Sherlock Holmes and tape a strand of hair over his door and see if it's broken at the next visit. That way one could know if he's been out of the apartment, and hence just being reclusive in not answering the door or phone. Technically still an invasion of the man's privacy, but as you say, less foot-in-mouth.