Extremis Documentary Review

Extremis (2016)Watch Extremis on Netflix
Directed by: Dan Krauss
Rated: --/PG

Plot:
This Netflix original documentary looks at end of life care from the perspective of patients, family, and doctors. It's only twenty minutes long.

Verdict:
This is a quick look at the choices doctors and families face in the Intensive Care Unit.
Watch it.

Review:
This captures people at their most vulnerable state. Doctors have to be realistic, but they are dealing with patients that aren't responsive. The doctor has to rely on what the family tells them, and sometimes the family is unwilling to admit that their relative's quality of life is unacceptable.

One of the doctors relays a story when she first started in the ICU. She was using her training to save a patient, and a veteran nurse tells her that she's just torturing the patient. They can't recover. That is a truth that is difficult to accept. We see how difficult that is in this short.

Extremis - About difficult decisions.

This is twenty minutes long. It's enough time to make a point and not become boring. This leads to the question of physician assisted suicide, but it by no means broaches the subject.

For the families depicted in the short, the time in the ICU is a period to accept what's going to happen. It is better to prolong your relative's life because you don't want them to die or should you ease their suffering?

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