She talks with the San Francisco Chronicle about her films (The Vanishing Line, Hold Your Breath, and others) and her work with the Stanford Center for Biomedical Ethics:
I was a resident in emergency medicine at Stanford hospital. In the emergency department I found that the staff would all lead resuscitations and we’d all say, ‘I never want that done to myself.’ I thought, ‘I need to make a film about that.’ The public doesn’t understand what a resuscitation is like.
There is this perception that you can just get your heart started again and everything is fine, so why would you die if you could survive? The issue is the consequences of being resuscitated and having your heart come back somewhat, but not your brain, and months and months in the hospital, or just a prolonged death.
I realized that it was a much bigger issue. It was all about our own fear of death. I met this amazing hospice social worker, Jim Brigham, and went with him on home visits to patients that were dying.
When there is no further treatment, the doctors usually become scarce. It is hard for them to know how to interact at that point. They don’t feel like they have anything left to offer. Doctors are all about cure, but you can treat the symptoms. You can also help them know what’s ahead and walk them through that.
Earlier on blog.bioethics.net:
+ Hold Your Breath
+ Dr. Maren Grainger-Monsen in San Francisco Chronicle