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Dying to Breathe
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Viewing Ideas
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Before Watching
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Ask half of the class to observe the patients featured in the
program, and to focus their observations on the first set of
viewing questions. Ask the other half of the students to watch
the doctors, focusing their observations on the second group of
viewing questions.
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What are some of the coping strategies and attitudes of the
patients waiting for lung transplants? How do they react to
the uncertainty of their situations? How do patients respond
when they are told that an organ has been found, or when
they discover that they will not be able to receive a lung?
How do they react when another patient in the program dies?
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As the doctors make decisions about whether or not to
transplant certain lungs, what factors do they consider in
evaluating the organs to be donated? What issues complicate
their decisions? How do they present their decisions to
patients?
After Watching
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Ask students in each group to report on what they observed.
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Patient Group
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What are some of the toughest decisions faced by the
patients?
How do they deal with these challenges? -
How do they discuss these issues with their doctors and
families?
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Doctor Group
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What are some of the toughest decisions faced by the
doctors?
How do they deal with these challenges? -
What are some of the techniques that they use in
discussing their decisions with patients and their
families?
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Ask both groups these questions: What might you do differently
if you were a patient? If you were a doctor?
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During the program, intensive care specialist Dr. Tom Todd talks
about "stepping over the line" in making decisions about lung
transplant surgery. What other types of medical treatments would
students define as "stepping over the line"? Some examples they
might want to consider are experimental treatments for terminal
diseases, gene therapy, or cases where parents decide to have a
second child for the purpose of donating the new baby's bone
marrow to a sick sibling.
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