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takyon writes:

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)

Original Submission