<Anchor>



Next, I will tell you about a problem that our society should think about at least once.

However, the number of people who refuse meaningless treatment to prolong their lives is increasing recently in Korea as well.

However, research shows that 9 out of 10 such people are on antibiotics until they die.



To see what this means, we will continue the story after seeing the exclusive coverage of medical reporter Cho Dong-chan.



<Reporter>



A terminal cancer patient who refused meaningless life-sustaining treatment.



Medical staff cannot administer chemotherapy, cardiopulmonary resuscitation, ventilator, dialysis, blood transfusion, or blood pressure-increasing drugs.



It can only provide nutrients and oxygen.



[Dasol Park/Nurse at Gangnam Severance Hospital: I saw if the fluid went into the injection line well, and (the patient) was intubated, and I looked around the intubation insertion site.]



1.4 million people in Korea have pledged not to receive meaningless life-sustaining medical care.



Recently, there are many cases where the patient himself/herself decides when he is conscious.



[Jeon Mi-jin / Protector of lung cancer patient who stopped life-sustaining medical care: (Mother) said that he did not want to burden his family too much, and it would have been better if we had discussed it together, but it was a bit sad that he decided on his own.]



Severance Hospital offers life-sustaining treatment Antibiotics were used in 91% of 1,734 terminally ill patients who refused to take antibiotics for the week before death.



Two types of antibiotics were administered in 60.1%, and three types were also administered in 18.2%.



Cases where there was a medical clue for the use of antibiotics were rare.



[Han Sang-hoon/Professor of Infectious Diseases at Gangnam Severance Hospital: I was very surprised at the fact that there are many patients who are being treated with antibiotics that treat bacteria that are highly resistant to antibiotics, even though they do not use drugs that raise blood pressure when blood pressure drops. There is controversy over the use of antibiotics at

the



end of life for terminally ill patients, but there are many views that the harm outweighs the benefits.



[Han Sang-hoon/Professor of Infectious Diseases at Gangnam Severance Hospital: I think the most worrying part is that excessive use of inappropriate antibiotics can exacerbate the appearance of resistant strains.]



In an American survey, patients who chose to discontinue life-sustaining medical care It was found that 70.9% of patients refused antibiotics.



(Video coverage: Kim Gyun-jong, video editing: Park Ji-in, CG: Jang Seong-beom·Ban So-hee)



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<Anchor>



Medical reporter Cho Dong-chan is here.



Q. Will antibiotics benefit the dying patient?



[Cho Dong-chan/medical reporter (specialist): The medical staff prescribes it to help terminally ill patients even a little, but it is not known whether there is actually any benefit.

The problem is that patients are in a state of lack of information.]



[Choi Jeong-mi / Gangnam Severance Hospital Life-sustaining Medical

Coordinator: You only know CPR (whether or not) and wearing a ventilator (whether or not)


.



A) : Efforts to reduce the use of antibiotics in terminally ill patients are ongoing worldwide, so we should discuss designating antibiotics as a life-sustaining medical item as in the United States.]



Q. Discussing the death of dignity in Korea?

Proposal of the 'Assistant Death with Dignity Act'



[Dongchan Cho/Medical Reporter (specialist): Last June, the National Assembly introduced the Assisted Death Death Bill, that is, a bill to help terminally ill patients die by administering drugs by doctors.

It may be legislated, but for this to be positively discussed, the ambiguity between the end of the disease and the end of life must first be resolved.]



Q. Different interpretations of the end of the disease and the end of life, the same situation?



[Cho Dong-chan/Medical Reporter (specialist): When a terminal cancer patient enters on the verge of death, it is called the end-of-life period.

There were many cases of terminal cancer patients who refused to receive life-sustaining medical care at the peak of the corona virus earlier this year and were infected with the corona.

Conversely, there are cases where artificial cardiopulmonary treatment was performed as a result of the terminal illness.

In the same situation, the terminal stage and the end-of-life period differ depending on the medical staff, and we must clarify this first so that a deeper discussion about death with dignity is possible.]