Comments on: Should extremely premature babies be resuscitated? http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2006/11/should-extremely-premature-babies-be.html Tue, 14 Feb 2012 23:00:00 +0000 hourly 1 By: Anonymoushttp://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2006/11/should-extremely-premature-babies-be.html#comment-68841 Anonymous Thu, 16 Nov 2006 05:19:00 +0000 http://clients.emmense.com/kevinmd/2006/11/should-extremely-premature-babies-be-resuscitated.html#comment-68841 1% of people consume over 50% of the healthcare dollar. Where is the outrage? 1% of people consume over 50% of the healthcare dollar. Where is the outrage?

]]> By: beajerryhttp://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2006/11/should-extremely-premature-babies-be.html#comment-68807 beajerry Wed, 15 Nov 2006 14:00:00 +0000 http://clients.emmense.com/kevinmd/2006/11/should-extremely-premature-babies-be-resuscitated.html#comment-68807 I agree. Too many babies are saved when they shouldn't be. I agree. Too many babies are saved when they shouldn’t be.

]]> By: Gasmanhttp://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2006/11/should-extremely-premature-babies-be.html#comment-68806 Gasman Wed, 15 Nov 2006 13:55:00 +0000 http://clients.emmense.com/kevinmd/2006/11/should-extremely-premature-babies-be-resuscitated.html#comment-68806 Neonatologists are not the group to look to for leadership here. THey tend to view as a 'save' anything that survives to discharge. While they do have their patients back to their clinic for a few months while transitioning care to the plain old pediatrician, they never follow up for years and decades.<br/><br/>There are many children alive and normally functioning as a result of modern neonatal developments. But there are all too many kids who keep rolling through our ORs completely devastated, with no cognitive function or scintilla of conscious functioning. The families were given enormous hopes and are now stuck with spastic, seizing, hydrocephalic and tube fed kids. <br/><br/>When weighing the efficacy of a therapy, short term outcomes, like survival to discharge, should be ignored, when long term outcomes are fully knowable for the population. In determining the full costs of resuscitation, the full cost of the worst failures must be included in the calculation. Neonatologists are not the group to look to for leadership here. THey tend to view as a ‘save’ anything that survives to discharge. While they do have their patients back to their clinic for a few months while transitioning care to the plain old pediatrician, they never follow up for years and decades.

There are many children alive and normally functioning as a result of modern neonatal developments. But there are all too many kids who keep rolling through our ORs completely devastated, with no cognitive function or scintilla of conscious functioning. The families were given enormous hopes and are now stuck with spastic, seizing, hydrocephalic and tube fed kids.

When weighing the efficacy of a therapy, short term outcomes, like survival to discharge, should be ignored, when long term outcomes are fully knowable for the population. In determining the full costs of resuscitation, the full cost of the worst failures must be included in the calculation.

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