Because physicians consider antibiotics ordinary or standard treatment, their decisions to use them in the treatment of life-threatening infections are often automatic. Clinic criteria, rather than patient's or surrogate's wishes, are often their primary considerations. In addition, many elderly patients being considered for life-sustaining antibiotic treatment are severely debilitated and incapable of making treatment decisions. Decisionmaking aids like the living will are rarely of use to these people, who often have been incapacitated for a long time and are unlikely to have given specific prior directives regarding their care. The outcomes of life-sustaining antibiotic treatment range from complete cure to death.
Antibiotics are usually effective in curing infections.
However, they can neither eliminate nor alleviate preexisting illness in chronically, critical, or terminally ill or severely debilitated elderly people. Many health care providers believe that antibiotic treatment is always appropriate when an active infection is present. Despite this strong presumption in favor of using antibiotic therapy, some health care providers and other believe that there are circumstances in which it is justifiable to withhold life-sustaining antibiotic treatment. She ended up in a nursing home in a semivegetative state, she lost her functional and mental independence. Everything she wanted to avoid has happened to her.