Is it okay not to investigate and treat somebody when they get sick at home? This is a big scary question for a lot of people. Part of the answer for a Sunshiner is to know what the person wants and doesn’t want, BEFORE they get sick. Are you willing to take a chance of dying at home of something unknown, in order to avoid dying in the hospital of exactly the same thing with a label on it?

Nobody knows how often a Sunshiner’s life is “saved” by a trip to the hospital, but my experience tells me it’s rare. It depends what we mean by “saving a life”. Would living an extra few days count? What about living an extra six months? Is your life saved if you spend the rest of it in the hospital?  How accurate is a family doctor when he makes an educated guess at the home bedside that somebody has had a stroke or a heart attack?  Most of the time, staying home at the end of your life is a more comfortable choice, and I find that hospital investigation and treatment rarely makes any honest difference to what happens to somebody.

I think Sunshiners and their relatives need the rest of us to give them permission to take the risk of staying home if they decide they want to. Your doctors and nurses should use their training and experience to tell you what they think, you should trust them, and then you should decide for yourself.