During an age of scientific wonder, there has always been concern among doctors that patients and families don’t always understand medicine’s limitations.

Back in October 2019, doctors at Melbourne’s Northern Hospital admitted a 99-year-old man with community-acquired pneumonia and initiated antibiotics.

He had a long list of comorbidities ranging from chronic kidney disease and peripheral vascular disease to scoliosis, osteoporosis, hypertension and ischaemic heart disease.

The family was told he very ill and may not survive, but they requested that CPR should be given if required. The treating doctor replied that it would be both ineffective and traumatic.