I think Huttman chooses Mac’s story to illustrate this problem with the healthcare industry because it’s a perfect example of a patient being basically tortured. Despite Mac being in immense pain and barely hanging onto life, he was forced to keep fighting when he no longer wanted to. Even Mac’s family was being traumatized by the nurses forcing him to be revived more than fifty times a day. It paints a picture of a doctor’s order overriding a patient’s feelings on how they want their life to continue. Mac’s experience supports Huttman’s thesis, because it depicts the depressing, and excruciating pain a family and patient must endure while technology keeps a beloved one teetering between life and death.
People in the audience of the Phil Donahue
People in the audience of the Phil Donahue