Why do many doctors wear tattoos that say “Do Not Resuscitate.” After all, a doctor helps other people without asking if they want it or not. Doctors do what they can to save a life. For some, it’s a job; for others, it’s a calling. Some doctors want the relatives and loved ones of patients to pay them huge compensation. For themselves, however, doctors are stubbornly unwilling to use every possible and impossible method to survive. Doctors prefer to leave in peace and dignity rather than remain disabled. Doctors are not willing to suffer. They are neither cynics nor cowards. They love their loved ones very much and understand the ordeal a person whose relative has lost the ability to move has to go through.
Even if a doctor takes steps to save a person, he doesn’t know what the end result will be. But he does know how much anguish, money, and physical effort it will take from relatives, staff, and the patient himself. This is why doctors wear pendants warning against resuscitation. To people who are not in medical practice, such a decision may seem sacrilegious and selfish. However, ordinary people also idealize the possibilities of medicine. After all, a person may be terminally ill or too old to fight for life, and desperate attempts to revive him will bring him hellacious pain and unbearable sensations in his last minutes of life. Doctors know all this, and that is why they ask not to resuscitate them. And not because they think they are the only luminaries and trust no one else.
Why do doctors refuse to resuscitate them in death?
A noble physician in the United States told the story of his mentor, a doctor who was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. This man had the opportunity to use the services of one of the best surgeons in the country, but he refused. He quit his job, left the hospital and never came back. The former orthopedic surgeon spent the last few months of his life with his family. So why did he refuse surgery, chemotherapy and expert treatment? The reason was because he knew his chances of surviving at least five years after surgery were 15 percent. In that case, however, he would become a burden on his family and friends. He didn’t want that for himself or his family. Doctors wish for dignified care, without loss of self-control or sanity. They believe that care and attention and the patient’s ability to respond normally to the presence of loved ones is the best thing that can happen to a person in his last days. This is what their medical truth is all about.