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posted by mrpg on Monday December 04 2017, @03:45PM   Printer-friendly
from the Requiescat-In-Pace dept.

A 70-year-old man with an unusual chest tattoo caused doctors to call for the assistance of ethics consultants:

Emergency medicine doctors in Florida struggled to figure out how to respectfully care for an unconscious 70-year-old man with a chest tattoo that read "Do Not Resuscitate" followed by what appeared to be his signature. In a case report published Thursday in the New England Journal of Medicine, the doctors recounted:

This patient's tattooed DNR request produced more confusion than clarity, given concerns about its legality and likely unfounded beliefs that tattoos might represent permanent reminders of regretted decisions made while the person was intoxicated.

The unresponsive patient was brought to the emergency department by paramedics. He had high blood-alcohol levels and no identification or family with him. After a few hours, hospital staff saw his condition slipping. His blood pressure dropped and acids were building up in his blood. Despite the prominent tattoo, the doctors didn't know if they should trust it. They contacted social workers to try to find his next of kin and made several attempts to revive him enough to get him to confirm his wishes. But the revival attempts failed.

The consultants advised that the tattoo be treated as an authentic preference, and a Do not resuscitate order was written. Later on, the patient's official out-of-hospital DNR order was found, and it matched the preference expressed by the tattoo. The patient ended up dying later that night.

Let this be a lesson to you: Don't get an ironic "Do Not Resuscitate" tattoo.

An Unconscious Patient with a DNR Tattoo (open, DOI: 10.1056/NEJMc1713344) (DX) (PDF)


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  • (Score: 1) by khallow on Monday December 04 2017, @05:22PM (8 children)

    by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Monday December 04 2017, @05:22PM (#605138) Journal

    Student (interrupting): Your approach is too complicated. If three people were wanting to eat the cake, a much simpler solution would be to cut the cake in half (as closely as possible) and shoot the third person. That way both conditions (1) and (2) are satisfied.

    Why not stab three people and then I can have the cake for myself? If you're going to tell silly stories, then they should be stories where I have the cake.

  • (Score: 4, Informative) by curunir_wolf on Monday December 04 2017, @05:32PM (1 child)

    by curunir_wolf (4772) on Monday December 04 2017, @05:32PM (#605143)
    The cake is a lie.
    --
    I am a crackpot
  • (Score: 2) by realDonaldTrump on Monday December 04 2017, @06:27PM (5 children)

    by realDonaldTrump (6614) on Monday December 04 2017, @06:27PM (#605174) Homepage Journal

    I'll tell you, first we do the biggest Tax Cut in history. Then the cuts to Medicare happen automatically. Terrific!

    • (Score: 1) by khallow on Monday December 04 2017, @06:47PM (2 children)

      by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Monday December 04 2017, @06:47PM (#605192) Journal
      Let me tell you about this one weird trick [wordpress.com] that libertarians hate! The automation is already underway.
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 05 2017, @03:23PM (1 child)

        by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 05 2017, @03:23PM (#605663)
        • (Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday December 05 2017, @03:33PM

          by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday December 05 2017, @03:33PM (#605668) Journal
          They're going to have to do better than $25 billion reduction per year to get Medicare costs in line with revenue, but I see the games are underfoot.
    • (Score: 3, Interesting) by DannyB on Monday December 04 2017, @08:49PM (1 child)

      by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Monday December 04 2017, @08:49PM (#605284) Journal

      How about we build a wall around the swamp and make the swamp pay for it?

      We have the best swamps. Trust me. The best most beautiful swamps. Swamps unmatched by the rest of the world. And believe me, I know my swamps.

      --
      People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
      • (Score: 1) by Sulla on Monday December 04 2017, @09:03PM

        by Sulla (5173) on Monday December 04 2017, @09:03PM (#605292) Journal

        I think you finally found a proposal that all sides of politics are in favor of.

        --
        Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam