by Mary Caliendo

Created on: April 15, 2009

No, it is not right to withhold giving any human being medical treatment that is necessary. However, with that being said, could some types of treatments be not good for people with certain medical conditions, yes. It is a doctor advice that the paitent ultimately seeks. It is the doctor, who after an excrusiating long amount of schooling, must come to a decision about the patient's stability of health before he proceeds with a treatment.

Some people who are obese (morbidly) must at once begin down a road that can help them achieve medical success. At times the obese person can become more of a health risk. The person's condition and ability to obtain a treatment, may make a difference in the treatment that he or she receive automatically. I knew a neighbor who was quite elderly, and very thin. This neighbor needed to have a surgery to relieve him of a certain health condition. But the neighbor was very fragile health wise. It was a collaboration and the group of doctors ruled that at this time in our neighbor's life, and being that his health was so fragile; the doctors did deem the surgery too much of a risk. He was not in immanent danger, he would continue to live until old age took him.

That example of our neighbor was sad, but I felt that the doctors had made the right decision. The neighbor's health was in such fragile condition that the doctors felt that the surgery itself may prove to be too much for him. If the neighbor had a life or death situation that they could improve on; so that he would not pass away then it should have been done. But on the other hand, where a person is so obese that it will cause heart condition, or blood pressure issue to the point where the end result is death I guarantee that no doctor wants to put himself in that situation. There are high risk doctors, that if the obese person were in trouble and it were life and death, these doctors do take the chance. It is ironic that sometimes when we try to improve ourselves or have a necessary surgery for what may be ailing you it does often come down to a weight issue or if the smoker was so bad that the patient's lung may not inflate during the surgery thus causing the smoker to not be able to breathe without the help of a ventilate, may put this patient in extreme risk and may cause death.

I think that the doctor or the doctor's team may have to search their hearts, they have taken a Hippocratic Oath to welcome each and every patient and help with anyone's care. If the determination is made, perhaps the person can begin to change their ways and their habits to help proceed with a future surgery in the meantime, the doctor can assist the patient in a myriad of ways to insure that, that patient would receive the utmost in care.

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