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Article: 50 million Americans in chronic pain: Medical community needs help in helping us deal with pain.
- Article from:
- Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service
- Article date:
- January 12, 1999
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1999 Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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LOS ANGELES _ Today in the United States, we are living longer than ever before. However, our longer life expectancy also means that we are living with more pain.
The fear and agony of pain help fuel the right-to-die movement and Jack Kevorkian's assisted suicide crusade. For the medical community, these are marks of failure.
Physicians and nurses must learn that pain is a medical emergency, similar to bleeding, raging fever or infection, which can be successfully treated and managed. Patients need and deserve another option available to them so that they will not consider ending their lives to free themselves of physical discomfort.
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