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Sachin Dave, MD
Marshall University Huntington, WVa

JAMA. 1997;278(17):1401.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

To the Editor.

—I congratulate Drs Gurwitz and Goldberg¹ on their Editorial regarding the article by Dr Krumholz and colleagues² on thrombolytic therapy in the elderly. However, I am surprised that no mention was made of the patient's functional capacity prior to hospitalization in relation to the decision to administer thrombolytic therapy. As far as I know, none of the studies on thrombolysis has addressed this issue. We, as investigators, get immersed in statistics and forget that humans are not immortal. Any effort to achieve immortality, in my opinion, is useless. If the age is ripe, we as a society should concentrate on comfort care and not heroics.

We should devote our resources primarily to the productive and functional sector of society. Age is not a contraindication to any beneficial therapy, but the functional status of a given patient should be one of the most important considerations in . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

Footnotes
Edited by Margaret A. Winker, MD, Senior Editor, and Phil B. Fontanarosa, MD, Senior Editor.

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