Telling patients they're going to die is less dramatic than one might think, and contrary to popular belief, most doctors refuse to estimate how many weeks or months patients have left to live.
While initial reports of Patrick Swayze's pancreatic cancer diagnosis came with predictions that the star would have only five weeks to live, the actor's doctor quickly released a statement refuting the rumors.
"Patrick has a very limited amount of disease, and he appears to be responding well to treatment thus far," Dr. George Fisher, Swayze's physician, said in the statement. "All the reports stating the time frame of his prognosis and his physical side effects are absolutely untrue. We are considerably more optimistic
Putting a time stamp on someone's life, several doctors told ABCNEWS.com, is something that few doctors are willing to do. Instead, they employ much more methodical and caring techniques of breaking the news to terminally ill patients.
"It's not [a doctor's] job......
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/MindMoodNews/story?id=4402744&page=1
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