Heart surgeons refuse difficult operations to avoid poor mortality ratings

Re:Heart surgeons refuse difficult operations to avoid poor ... by 2skep on Saturday April 21, 2018 @03:44PM (#16893026)

What would you prefer?

A surgeon who expects a poor outcome of your surgery:

a)decides to not operate on you? b)decides to operate on you nonetheless?

I am in camp a

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Heart surgeons refuse difficult operations to avoid poor ... by calcifer on Saturday April 21, 2018 @04:29PM (#16893266)

I'm definitely in camp B. 90% chance of dying on the table beats a 100% chance of dying without the surgery, every single time.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Heart surgeons refuse difficult operations to avoid poor ... by jack9 on Saturday April 21, 2018 @06:25PM (#16893717)

Quality of life matters in most of these marginal cases. If they are going to give you the Konno procedure (scrape extra tissue out of a thickened ventricle), there's tons of things that can go wrong OTHER than death. Death is assured, either way, for everyone.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Heart surgeons refuse difficult operations to avoid poor ... by stordoff on Saturday April 21, 2018 @08:00PM (#16894040)

It depends what the outcome is without the surgery. If I'm dead without it, I want them to operate regardless. If there's only a chance of death, or the surgery is aiming to improve quality of life (rather than prevent [imminent] death), it's more of a judgement call.

[ Parent | on HN ]