Is this a first? Surgeon-blogger posts her Five Wishes online

One of my favorite bloggers and a great online supporter of palliative medicine is the Arkansas surgeon RL Bates (@rlbates) who writes at "Suture for a Living." This week she posted her Five Wishes for care near the end of her life on her blog.  Why? Partially as a response to reading about the recent Annals of Internal Medicine on the effect of surrogate decision making on the surrogate,  partially because her husband has difficulty talking about it, and partially because she wants to avoid conflict between any family members over decisions about her care as she discusses in her post.

Please go read her post and offer any comments.  This makes for an interesting ethics case...what would you do if a family member presented you with a blog post like this documenting a patients wishes? It may have already happened to one of you.


PS If I have not convinced you to check out her blog yet, she loves to quilt and posts her creations along with her medical musings for any fans of Americana!)

PPS Do you know it i s less than one month to National Health Care Decisions Day on April 16th?  Is your organization doing anything for it this year? (Disclaimer: I am helping NHDD organize social media efforts this year)