It was one of the darkest days of Daniel Matlock’s medical career. Dr. Matlock specializes in older patients and end-of-life care. He’d been summoned to the case of a woman who experienced a massive stroke. The woman had spelled out her wishes in an advance directive and she did not want any form of life support. Matlock saw the woman was getting intravenous hydration and asked that it be removed. That was when another doctor essentially accused him of murder. Turns out, this isn’t unusual. A recent report in the Journal of Palliative care finds that one in four doctors who work with patients at the end-of-life have experienced accusations like these. Dr. Matlock, who’s a geriatrician at the University of Colorado, started blogging about his experience. It was picked up by the New York Times. Matlock spoke with CPR's Ryan Warner.
[Photo: Juni A./Wikimedia]
