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Sikhi Death Is Not The Enemy

Tejwant Singh

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Jun 30, 2004
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Henderson, NV.
By Doctor Kamal S. Kalsi, MD, Major, United States Army.

Death is not the enemy… I am many things, but on a good day, I’m an ER doc. Last night I took care of a patient that had been bed bound in a nursing facility for at least the last 7 years. She had bed sores the size of my hand. But that isn’t important right now because they’ve rushed her in for her cardiac arrest. I look at the wasted remains of what probably was once a beautiful body. “She’s a full code doc,” I’m told with a sense of sympathetic urgency. Tubes are everywhere… there’s one to feed her, one to help her breathe… I throw one in so that we can give her the necessary medications needed for resuscitation.

kalsi.jpg


I don’t feel a pulse.

We start compression’s, feel the crackle of breaking ribs and dark blood begins oozing from her mouth. She has a gastrointestinal bleed. We rush to pour blood into her. She must be 100 years old. My mind flashes back to all the soldiers we took care of on the front lines in Helmand.

Blood is everywhere.

That smell and feel of blood is something you never forget. “I got a pulse” I tell everyone after several rounds of epinephrine, atropine and bicarbonate. In my heart I know this body will never recover. She will go to the ICU and will probably die there. The family still wants “everything” done. We dutifully torture the life out of these bodies. Cold. Lifeless. Inhumane. Death is not the enemy… I am.

These types of sad and futile exercises have become a common fixture in emergency departments nationwide. A large part of what makes this issue so prevalent is heart disease. Cardiovascular disease remains the number one cause of death in the U.S. today. Annually, this translates to more than 600,000 deaths. Based on the Resuscitation Outcomes Consortium data from a report published by the American Heart Association in 2015, survival to hospital discharge after EMS-treated non-traumatic cardiac arrest with any first recorded rhythm was 7.3%. Essentially, if you have a cardiac arrest, the odds of you walking away with a good neurological outcome from that event are not in your favor.

Most of my doctor and nurse friends openly discuss that they do not wish to be resuscitated when their time comes. Why is that? There is a natural tendency for a healer to want to “fix” the human body when things aren’t working right. But death is a natural process, and desperate attempts to prolong life often simply end up prolonging the suffering. What follows from this is that a large percentage of our healthcare dollars are spent in the last few years of life. We live well in the U.S., but we haven’t learned how to die well. Perhaps it’s because we don’t respect death.

Death is an uncomfortable topic. How many of you have been to your doctor’s office and had a frank discussion about your death? Overall, Do Not Resuscitate (DNR) orders are more common now than they were just a few years ago. However, my experience has been that these difficult conversations are happening much less frequently in communities that are economically or psychosocially challenged. In immigrant communities like mine, it is exceptionally rare to see a patient come in with a DNR.

Our understanding of death has evolved. Clinically, I can declare a patient dead when they have no signs of life (i.e. – no reflexes, no cardiac activity, no respirations). But the numerous complex systems of the body sometimes don’t talk to each other when they’re closing the shop. It is possible to have a brain dead person who is breathing and has a heartbeat. Most states now recognize that a person is truly dead when they are brain dead. A variety of different scanning methods that look at cerebral blood flow or brain activity can be used to determine brain death. At that point, if a patient is declared brain dead by the medical team, they can and should withdraw all care to allow a natural progression to death for all the other organs in the body.

ICU care costs can run well over $10,000 each day. Insurance companies may no longer cover the costs of care once the patient has been declared brain dead. I have seen families become destitute while bearing the burden of these costs, all the while insisting that everything should be done. When it is apparent that the patient will not recover, it our duty as physicians to compassionately help the family understand that any further efforts are futile.

So today I implore you to have the conversation. Talk to your family and your doctor about palliative care, hospice and DNRs while you still have the ability to make decisions for yourself. As a practicing Sikh, I see this life as simply a journey of learning, love and service. I believe that death is not an end, but simply serves as a transition point for the soul. Regardless of what you believe, a peaceful transition without extraordinary measures is a practical and compassionate approach to the end of life.

We may still not understand death or what lies beyond it, but we must learn to respect it.

-Dr. KS Kalsi, MD, Major, United States Army Reserve.

Dr. Kalsi was born in India and arrived in America when he was two years old. Within his family, Dr. Kalsi is fourth generation military service. Dr.Kalsi’s Great-Grandfather served in the British Army, his Grandfather and Father served in the Indian Air Force. Dr. Kalsi is an Operation Enduring Freedom Veteran and currently resides with his wife in New Jersey, USA, where he serves as the EMS Director for the Saint Clare’s Health System.
 

Inderjeet Kaur

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Oct 13, 2011
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Seattle, Washington, USA
As all my friends know, I have been seriously ill since a stroke ten years ago. When I go to bed at night, there is a greater than average chance that I won't be around to wake up in the morning. I am getting the best possible medical care, yet about a year ago, I had a blood clot in my lung that could easily have been fatal.

I am not afraid of dying. To begin with, I am a Sikh and fear of death just isn't part of the program. Second, I have died - flat-lined - in the past, so I have actually experienced death.

What Dr. Kalsi says here is the absolute truth in my case. Death is not the enemy. Over zealous doctors who want to keep life in a body ready to die are the enemy. As with the medical professionals he mentions, I have a DNR (DO NOT RESUSCITATE) order. I signed it after much thought, consultation with medical professionals, and prayer. When it's my time to move on, please allow me to do so with calm dignity. Whatever your wishes are about this, I urge you to put them in legal papers and make them known to your family, especially those who will be making your medical decisions when you cannot.

And I must thank Dr. Kalsi for this article. Death is a subject too often avoided, sometimes with calamitous results.
 

Navdeep88

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SPNer
Dec 22, 2009
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I agree with Dr. Kalsi.

Although I don't work as a Healthcare professional, I do work in an administrative role in the community.

I've learned So much about people during this role. From the grandmother who came across the border to visit her family ( and ended up in ICU and a helicopter ride back to the states, costing over $15000) to the men and women who go to hospice and sometimes they're not ready to accept their own status.

The most memorable was terminally ill homeless man who just wanted a bed and to watch TV at the end of his life (a luxury he hadn't had in a while). Situations like this put my own life into perspective, that I have Zero reason to complain and shouldn't be taking things for granted.
 

chazSingh

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SPNer
Feb 20, 2012
1,644
1,643
As all my friends know, I have been seriously ill since a stroke ten years ago. When I go to bed at night, there is a greater than average chance that I won't be around to wake up in the morning. I am getting the best possible medical care, yet about a year ago, I had a blood clot in my lung that could easily have been fatal.

I am not afraid of dying. To begin with, I am a Sikh and fear of death just isn't part of the program. Second, I have died - flat-lined - in the past, so I have actually experienced death.

What Dr. Kalsi says here is the absolute truth in my case. Death is not the enemy. Over zealous doctors who want to keep life in a body ready to die are the enemy. As with the medical professionals he mentions, I have a DNR (DO NOT RESUSCITATE) order. I signed it after much thought, consultation with medical professionals, and prayer. When it's my time to move on, please allow me to do so with calm dignity. Whatever your wishes are about this, I urge you to put them in legal papers and make them known to your family, especially those who will be making your medical decisions when you cannot.

And I must thank Dr. Kalsi for this article. Death is a subject too often avoided, sometimes with calamitous results.

i love the article and love your response.

you've experienced actual death...and are here to tell the story somewhat, as i know you don;t like going into detail about it...but you know you will carry on...

There are members on this forum who have experienced Death whilst yet alive through their Simran on Waheguru, on the Ik...It is extremely powerful and life changing and helps remove the fear of death also.

God Bless
 

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