Word: lunde
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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Should doctors tell patients the truth? Indeed, asks Dr. Charles C. Lund in the current Annals of Internal Medicine, "Is it possible to convey the 'truth' about a serious matter to a patient?" The Boston cancer specialist's own answer: "Blunt 'truth' is not good [but] avoidance of the 'truth...
...doctor abruptly announces, "This is cancer," his patients will react in many ways. Eight out of ten, says Dr. Lund, might consent to surgery but "of these half might never forgive the doctor for his brutality." One patient out of ten might "believe erroneously that cancer is never cured and therefore decide to have no treatment. The other might be so upset mentally that [he] leaves the doctor and goes to a charlatan in whose hands all hope of cure will be lost...
...Lund's advice: at the start the doctor "should avoid the words carcinoma or cancer." He should use loose, non-frightening words...
After an operation, Dr. Lund thinks, the patient should gently but firmly be told what has been found and whether he will live. "Dying patients usually have a fairly good insight into their condition and the shock of confirming this belief is not great...
...Lund...