An 82 year old grandmother with her family’s support requests termination of hemodialysis that she is receiving for end stage renal disease.
A second psychiatric opinion determines that she really does not want to die and she had mistakenly believes that is what her family wished. After a family meeting, the family is able to readjust their support of her and she continues on dialysis. There is a brief review of various forms of dialysis treatment and the fact that Medicare pays for this treatment regardless of the age of the patient.