DOCTORS AND HOPELESS CASES.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLVI, Issue XLVI, 29 January 1914, Page 6

DOCTORS AND HOPELESS CASES.

The question of the doctor's duty ia regard to cases of hopeless illness or accident continues (says the Daily Telegraph) to be brought prominently before us by various recent occurrences, particularly that of the French railway accidentj where a victim suffered many hours before released by death. The rule in the hospitals is" that in every xiase the fight between the doctor, and the grim shadow on the other of the bed must be to the finisH^and tliat at all costs jihe last ounfe«j,.of energy of body and brain must bfr_?xpended by doctors, nurses, aJid 0&u----aents to keep alive those committed, to their care. The difficulty of "«4e£ ciding as to when a fatal termination is inevitable is, of course^, very great, ■even in case of serious accidents. Some pointy was given -to this by a recent discussion •at the West London Hospital,; when attention was called to a case of- accidental injury which had lately been treated in that institution. This was an instance of a young man who had been terribly crushed in a lift accident, as a result of which his injuries were so great that no doctor who saw him thought life possible for more than a few hours at the utmost. Yet. the vital resistance f ' in this man was such that he has completely passed out of danger, and, with the help of surgery, is now on the way to complete recovery. This, indeed, was one of those cases in which, owing to-an apparently hopeless outlook, it might have been decided that an end should be put, to the patient's sufferings.