A doctor who appeared on a video screen of a robot told his patient he was going to die.
Annalisia Wilharm was sitting beside her grandfather in an ICU of the Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Fremont, California.
Soon a robot with video screen came into the room, accompanied by a nurse who remained silent. A doctor on the screen began speaking to them. Annalisia Wilharm filmed the interaction on her phone as the doctor relayed the results of some tests.
The doctor on the screen tells, “Unfortunately there’s nothing we can treat very effectively.” The doctor explains that if morphine was given to her grandfather the breathing would become more difficult. “You know, I don’t know if he’s going to get home,” the doctor added as he recommend hospice care at home.
Her grandfather died the following day.
The family was very angry the way the situation was handled and how the news was delivered.
Annalisia Wilharm’s grandfather Ernest Quintana suffers a chronic obstructive pulmonary disease making breathing difficult. The family was always aware about the critical condition of Quintana’s, however delivering bad news right a the patients face isn’t good medical ethics.