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  Awards Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Ctr. Boston Medical Center Boston University Brigham and Women's Hospital Broad Institute Cambridge Health Alliance Caritas St. Elizabeth's Medical Ctr. Children's Hospital Boston Dana-Farber Cancer Institute Grants Harvard University Joslin Diabetes Center Lahey Clinic Mass. General Hospital Mass. Health Law McLean Hospital MIT New England Baptist Hospital Personnel Moves Public Health Research Short White Coat Tufts-New England Medical Center Tufts University UMass Memorial Medical Center University of Massachusetts VA Medical Centers    A Healthy Blog Running A Hospital Nature Network Boston SciBos - Corie Lok's blog Kevin, M.D. Blog, MD Nurse at small Dr. Gwenn Is In Healthy Children blog WBUR's CommonHealth Other Globe Blogs
Elizabeth Cooney is a health reporter for the Worcester Telegram &
Gazette.
Boston Globe Health and Science staff:
Scott Allen Alice Dembner Carey Goldberg Liz Kowalczyk Stephen Smith Colin Nickerson Beth Daley Karen Weintraub, Deputy Health and Science Editor, and Gideon Gil, Health and Science Editor. Short White Coat blogger Ishani Ganguli Short White Coat blogger Jennifer Srygley  Week of:
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« Legislators may tinker with health insurance law | Main | Mass. Hospital Association names new CEO » Wednesday, July 18, 2007NEJM: Leaving against medical adviceIn tomorrow's New England Journal of Medicine, a first-year internal medicine resident at Massachusetts General Hospital, writes an eye-opening essay about his experience treating a critically ill patient who, against medical advice, decided to leave the hospital. The patient, a 29-year-old heroin addict who spoke only Spanish, was hospitalized with a heart infection and failing heart, among other problems. "We tried deals and scare tactics, telling him as clearly as we could that he was more likely to die if he left this way," writes Dr. Viviany R. Taqueti. "When he countered with 'that is up to God,' we offered him consultation with a priest. An interventionalist, overhearing this exchange, called us warm and fuzzy. Our efforts felt futile, and we were weary. Yet it seemed wrong not to keep trying." Later, Taqueti writes, "I listened to his heart one more time ... I heard those ominous rumbles and screeches, and they startled me with their threat of impending death, obvious even to me. But (the patient) could not hear them, and I wondered how much of his failure to hear was due to our failure to translate. "I placed the stethoscope in his ears. (The patient) raised his eyebrows in astonishment but said nothing. I knew this simple hearing aid could not remedy his deafness, arising as it did from barriers of language, culture, denial, distrust, and drug dependency. I was left frustrated, sad, and tired." Posted by Gideon Gil at 08:04 PM
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