A doctor announced to his patient that he was going to die in front of the screen of a robot and sparked controversy

A doctor at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Fremont, United States, informed a 78-year-old patient that he would die, but the communication was not traditional: was done with a video conference, through the screen of a robot.

"I may not be going home," said the doctor, whose face was visible display it looks like the head of the automaton. The parents and friends of the patient disclosed this fact on Facebook and reopened the debate on the use of technology in the field of health.

A person close to the family said that "it's an atrocity like patient care and technology are crumbling"In an interview with BBCThe woman stated that the doctor used a screen to communicate remotely that the only possible option was to remove oxygen from the patient and inject morphine until death.

When the man's wife heard the doctor's communication on the screen of the robotic badistant, he told a nurse in the room that he did not like this methodology. According to the relatives present, the badistant answered "that's how we do things".

"I think the technological advances in medicine are wonderful, but we need to differentiate where and when they should be used", They added in the patient's inner circle, who died two days after arriving at the medical center.

"I knew that I was going to lose my grandfather soon, that it was going to happen and that he was very sick." I do not think anyone should receive the news this way. I should have been a human being, "warned the granddaughter of the man.

What they said about the hospital

"The video teleconference was a follow-up to previous doctor visits, and it did not replace previous conversations with the patient and family members, and was not used at the time of the visit. initial diagnosis, "commented Michelle Gaskill. Hames, vice president of the medical center.

And he added that there is always a doctor or nurse in the room at the announcement by videoconference. The hospital authorities indicated that they neither supported nor encouraged "the use of technology to replace personal interactions between patients and care teams" and that they regretted in this case of not having met the expectations of the patient's family.

"This is a very unusual circumstance, we regret that we have not met the expectations of the patient and the family in this situation, and we will take this opportunity to review our practices and standards with the care team," he said. they declared in a statement.