new device...a little rant

I just attended an inservice on a new device. It is an LVAD pump on a catheter that must be placed exacxtly between the left ventrical and tha aortic root and sucks blood from the ventrical and gooshes it into the aorta. I am seriously wondering about my reaction. This device could save lives in very specific clinical situations, but I am afraid it will be used as a life prolonging tool in unfixable situations when the familys have been poorly educated by the doctors and anticipate seeing it utilized in very elderly patients whose hearts are completely failing and who cannot recover but can die with their families saying "we did eveything for Mama".I don't even know what I am trying to say, but I see this device as leading to tortured deaths where the poor patient must be immobilized, not turned and made comfortable, and will die in agony.Will there ever be a voice of reason for the acceptance of death and the best interest of the patient.Does anyone else understand what I am feeling?

Yes, but your fears are misplaced. This is a ventricular assist device that takes some of the workload off a failing left ventricle (spelling) and is usually used as a bridge to transplant for someone who has been accepted as an organ recipient who is awaiting a donor organ, not as a last resort to maintain circulation in a dying person who wouldn't meet transplant criteria.

It may help you to remember that people thought the same thing when pacemakers were invented. They don't work in people who are FTD (fixin' to die) either.