Definition: From the word
palliate, meaning
to alleviate symptoms, palliative care focuses more on comforting than on
curing a patient. Palliative care would include medication for pain but might exclude medication to fight infection, cancer, or other threats to life; the latter would be given only to provide relief from symptoms, not to eliminate the cause. Food and liquids are provided as necessary and in the form most appealing to the patient -- some may wish to be fed real food in small amounts, others may have trouble swallowing and prefer a tube for feeding. The emphasis is on preparing the patient and family for a peaceful end of life, and includes psychological and spiritual assistance for all involved. When people say that they don’t want heroic measures to be taken if they are severely injured or ill, palliative care is probably what they have in mind: relief from pain, some time to spend with their families unencumbered by excess machinery, a gentle slide into death. If that slide doesn’t come as expected and the patient lingers indefinitely without hope of improvement or recovery, the care may be found to be
futile and some form of euthanasia may be proposed, such as discontinuing feeding. Efforts would then be made to make the patient as comfortable and pain-free as possible during that process. Palliative care can be administered in a hospital, a hospice, or at a patient’s home.
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