&gt; Are we sure that there&#x27;s a misunderstanding that death is a likely outcome<p>There isn&#x27;t a misunderstanding that death is a likely outcome, there commonly is a misunderstanding of survival time. Gawande&#x27;s book covers the subject of differing expectation between doctors and patients when discussing harsh treatment, patients think it&#x27;ll give them months or years, doctors think weeks.<p>If that isn&#x27;t explicitly put on the table — and it usually isn&#x27;t — you can get drawn-out &quot;medical fights&quot; where the patient&#x27;s quality of life is more or less negative.<p>See also: <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.pbs.org&#x2F;wgbh&#x2F;pages&#x2F;frontline&#x2F;health-science-technology&#x2F;being-mortal&#x2F;dr-atul-gawande-hope-is-not-a-plan-when-doctors-patients-talk-death&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.pbs.org&#x2F;wgbh&#x2F;pages&#x2F;frontline&#x2F;health-science-techn...</a>