optionality – if the fate of human life was in your hands.. what would you do?

so today. Today I had to make a decision regarding the fate of my grandfather. I got a call from mum this morning at 7.50am – I was already at work, but he had just been taken to hospital with a serious blood clot in his lower left leg. After much fluffing about, talking to nurses, doctors and surgeons, I (as the only blood relative living in the same town) had to decide between the following options:

Option 1. A fairly minor operation to remove the clot. Now this option has several possibilities and consequences:
a) given his general health, going under an epidural, he may have difficulty with recovering from the operation as a process (possibility of heart problems during, or developing pneumonia following surgery);
b) the operation may not work – there’s no guarantee that the entire clot would be removed, and that it would not reform following the operation;
c) if it does work, all good. No further action required.

Option 2. Major surgery to amputate the lower part of his left leg.
a) this would completely remove the possibility of the clot recurring, and given his general lack of mobility anyway, the disability would not be much of a problem to him.
b) given his general health, he would me more likely to have problems with a general anesthetic and major surgery again heart/pneumonia;

1. Do nothing (almost). Let the clot stay, make him comfortable (pain-free), the foot goes gangrenous, he eventually dies from various septic infections. This does not include the problems associated with surgery/anesthetic however it’s also not a nice way to go.

2. Should the clot reform following Option 1, we would have to follow with either Option 2 and amputate; or Option 3 and do nothing. Taking option 1 + 2 would mean putting him through not one, but two surgeries in a few weeks, giving him less chance of long-term survival, and higher chance of heart/pneumonia issues.

I’ve not had a good day.

I went with Option 1. If it works, it works, and we’ve removed something that is causing pain, and have removed the potential for the situation to worsen. However, if it doesn’t work, (following discussion with my mother, and aunt & cousin) we’ll go with Option 3. There’s no point in putting him under that much stress to remove a problem, where the cure may kill him as easily as the disease.

He went in for surgery at 2.30pm, and came out of recovery at 5.30pm – so far so good. He’s been stable since the operation, and his foot is showing signs of improvement. However this doesn’t mean that he’s out of the water – we still need to see if it reforms, and does he develop further complications?

Time will tell, I hate waiting…