Lenworth Jacobs and colleagues have a startling article, "Trauma Death: Views of the Public and Trauma Professionals on Death and Dying From Injuries," in this month's Archives of Surgery. A brief interview about the article is available at MedPageToday.
Jacobs et al. found that 61.3% of the public and 20.2% of professionals believe that a miracle can a save person in a persistent vegetative state. 57.4% of the public and 19.5% of trauma professionals said divine intervention can save a person when doctors think treatment is futile.
On the tough question of when to stop life-sustaining treatment, 72.8% of the public and 92.6% of professionals think if there's no hope for recovery, the focus of care should shift to the comfort of the dying patients. Moreover, among the whopping 27.2% who disagreed, 86.2% said treatment aimed at recovery should continue regardless of cost and half of those said it should continue aggressive care even when it meant taking resources away from those with a better chance of life.