Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation

Words: 2901
Pages: 12

Most cultures value life and bringing persons back from the dead is a popular subject of many fictional books. However, as technology evolves and the story of Frankenstein reborn with a bolt of lightning has come true with the external or implanted defibrillators, the natural process of death slows as much of society gains the knowledge to live longer than nature intended. The Red Cross Association taught many organizations like the girl and boy scouts the methods of mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and Cardiopulmonary resuscitation or CPR, a manual manipulation of the heart, as life saving methods for drowning, electrocution or heart attacks. First aid for laypersons to save lives as well as doctors and no one is thinking that the person did …show more content…
Methods in addressing those conflicting issues in the gray areas keep hampering the progress in achieving transparency with the problems, which are the autonomy of the patients and their prevailing condition for the DNR order. For example, the medical personnel in the operating room might not have much information about the elderly patient coming in for hip replacement that had a DNR order in place. However, the DNR order is very vague obviously, the patient expected to walk again and the ethics committee suspended the order just during surgery because she had an irregular heartbeat condition and family was not available for consultation. During surgery, the anesthesiologist who monitors cardio-respiratory stability of patients under general anesthesia during surgery can manipulate vital signs that can induce cardiac arrest. Suspending the DNR order the anesthesiologist has the right to use resuscitative measures to revive the patient without jeopardizing the patient’s wishes or the reputation of medical professionals during surgery. DNR orders can be vague and have to be clarified. If a patient decides to retain the order during surgery, OR nurses have a moral obligation to honor the patient’s right to choose and will not be legally …show more content…
Until the legal and ethical matters involved can be clarified, although by the time that is done advancements in medical technology will again cause more difficulties in interpretations of the DNR as the older will be out of date. Respect for cultural differences must be acknowledged now that the U.S. has so many people of many nations with various races and religious beliefs about death. In an example contrasting the United States, the United Kingdom recognizes the limitations of medicine. Physicians have the right to order and convince the patient’s surrogates to initiate a do not attempt to resuscitate (DNAR) where there is no benefit. Just recently in Texas, the Texas Medical Association updated a bill with the House Human Services committee about “…how the end of life decisions should be made and by whom…” (Dallas County Medical Society, 2011). The bill bestows full control over the length and type of care a critically ill patient can receive in a hospital despite the appropriateness of medical care and limits the abilities and the willingness of physicians to order a DNR, possibly making it a criminal act. The states differ about how the DNR is enacted and the future will depend on how close the states can get to a universal DNR. In the universal DNR, the rules will be common to all citizens of the United States and perhaps a world