Musings Part 4: Father and Son – what would real sons tend to actually do ?

19-Dec-2011 2:46 pm

GP: I think some would and others wouldn’t.

Consultant Doctor: As for 1.

Paramedic no 1: Most people will call GP/District Nurse/Macmillan Nurse for advice, and invariably be told to call 999.

Paramedic no 2: Respect his wishes, not call 999 but still contact GP for advice.

Nurse no 1: From my experience most would call 999 because of the moral and ethically duty not to let someone they loved die with an attempt to save their life. The son has to live the rest of their lives with the knowledge that if they didn’t act “what if” and can severely affect their grief process unless they felt the action produced more good than harm (their father would be at peace rather than suffering).

Nurse no 2: As above.

Nurse no 3: He will probably ring 999, having recently done some teaching about end of life with the local ambulance service, this is a situation which arises on a regular basis

Nurse no 4: I think the son would dial 999 as he would want his dad to have every chance at life, also he may panic at seeing his dad die. This nurse also wrote the following, after my ‘comment’: ‘You cannot assume that dad dies in peace, also there could be guilt at the “what if” as dad may be successfully resuscitated and have time to put his affairs in order and see family before he dies.’

MY ADDED NOTE: where someone has written ‘as above’ you need to refer to the previous ‘musings’ number, which is NOT the same as any internal numbering in these answers. So 'As for 1' here, is for the musings series 'as for musings 3'.

Personally, I think most people would call someone, and unless you immediately got the GP, I think you would almost certainly end up with a 999 paramedic (and neither of the 2 paramedics who answered, wanted to be involved in that situation, as their answers to ‘what should the son do ?’ revealed).