1. Hospice workers see a clear pattern: ordinary people in their final months choose chemotherapy until the end. Resuscitation, tubes, machines. Death in a hospital surrounded by equipment. Families spend tens of thousands on the final weeks. Meanwhile, 80% of doctors facing the same diagnosis refuse aggressive treatment. Almost none agree to resuscitation. Most die at home with family.
2. Here’s why doctors choose differently: they know what actually happens. One oncologist said: “I’ve treated cancer for 30 years. If I get stage four, I won’t do chemotherapy.” Stage four chemo extends life 2-3 months, but those months are nausea, pain, weakness. He’d rather have two good months at home than three terrible months in a hospital. Doctors aren’t choosing death. They’re choosing quality over quantity.
3. A Johns Hopkins study found doctors are three times more likely to sign DNR orders than the general public. They don’t want resuscitation because they’ve performed it. Movies show two minutes and a hug. Reality is broken ribs, brain damage, months on machines, then death anyway. Survival rate for hospital cardiac arrest is 18%. Survival without brain damage is 3%. Doctors know these numbers. Patients don’t.
4. Medical industry won’t emphasize this because end-of-life care is massively profitable. The average American spends more on healthcare in their final year than in the previous 80 years combined. Hospitals profit from aggressive intervention. Doctors who’ve seen the outcomes choose hospice and dignity instead.
5. You’ve probably never considered that the people who understand medicine best choose to die without it. After seeing this pattern for five years, I signed a DNR. No aggressive chemotherapy at stage four. Hospice, family, dignity.