From a Catholic standpoint, it was allowed for her to refuse such extraordinary treatment.
Indeed, I’ve treated two patients in the US whose osteoporosis and other medical problems made surgery so risky we eleced to treat them medically, and they healed.
But I’m not sure that it would be cheaper: it would require six months of skilled nursing care.
The problem is that if the “mindset” of “euthanasia/price control gets embedded into the health care system, the alternative treatment, which requires a lot of nursing care and TLC, won’t be done either. The patients will merely be narcotized and food/fluids withheld until they die.
which is not the same thing as chosing non sugical treatment of a hip fracture.
Of course, there is a third alternative: Dump them home with the family.
We also had a relative here in the Philippies, also a non surgical candidate due to medical prolems, who died miserably of pneumonia three months after a hip fracture.
So I’m not sure that it’ cheaper in the long run, since skilled nursing homes are also expensive, and unlike the Philippines, one doubts that extended families would be available to treat these people at home.
