Ageism has serious life and death consequences for the elderly. Often they are not given proper well-care screenings for osteoporosis, colon and prostrate cancer and glaucoma. Frequently, they are not referred to specialists like oncologists because of the erroneous belief that the elderly would not want or could not tolerate chemotherapy. They are usually excluded from drug trials. With age the body metabolizes drugs differently. In order to know how a particular drug will affect an elderly person it seems logical that they should be included in drug studies.
My own mother, at 83, will serve as an example of how dangerous ageist attitudes in the health care service are. First, my mother had been given an antibiotic by her physician to help her with an infection that she had on her tongue. At the time she was being treated with Coumadin, a blood thinner to prevent blood clots. Being very involved with her own medical concerns she looked up the antibiotic in the Physician’s Desk Reference. This book explains the purpose of drugs, their interaction with other drugs and their side effects. Mom read that this antibiotic should not be taken with Coumadin. She told this to her doctor, but the doctor told her not to worry about it.
Shortly, thereafter my mother became ill. The Coumadin was not working; she had a blood clot. To dissolve the blood clot doctors increased the amount of the Coumadin to such a high level that my mother began to bleed internally. A short time after that she was dead.
When the family asked why their mother was dead, the doctor said, “She lived a good life. Let her go.” Not only did the health care system’s ageism kill Mom, now they were trying to convince us it was a good thing. By saying “she had a good life,” without even knowing her, the doctor seemed to be implying ‘she’s old, what difference would another year or two make?’ I don’t think he or any of us has the right to decide that for another person’s life, but for my mother another year or two might have made a great deal of difference.
