Mrs. F

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Mrs. F is a 65-year-old woman with recurring medical problems as a result of many years of anorexia.  Mrs. F has mild dementia and she is having an increasingly difficult time taking care of herself.  One day she falls down the stairs in her home and breaks her hip.  When she is brought into the emergency room, it is clear that Mrs. F is malnourished, as her body resembles that of a much older woman.  Mrs. F refuses to eat, without any explanation.  Shortly into her ICU stay, Mrs. F has a stroke and she is quickly ventilated and given a PEG tube. Mrs. F has two daughters who come to see her at the hospital.  Mrs. F’s oldest daughter says that Mrs. F hated hospitals and doctors because she had once been institutionalized many years ago for her anorexia.  She asks doctors to stop all treatment and let her mother die in peace.  Mrs. F’s other daughter, however, claims that Mrs. F never wanted to eat and her earlier refusal is a symptom of her anorexia and not her wish to die.   Mrs. F has no advanced directives and the medical care needs to decide whether or not to remove Mrs. F’s feeding tube.

*Written by Devan Stahl