“invoking the principle of not choosing an irreversible path when faced with uncertainty”
I think I would have made the same choice. A tattoo is not a contract. It may be just a motto, or a decoration. Maybe he got it when he was drunk.
and no way to tell doctors whether he wanted to live or die.
I would say he had a unique and obvious way of telling the doctors.
A close relative was a frequent flyer from the nursing home to the ER.
The EMTs refused to read the cover of the file that was emblazoned with DNR.
It is all a sick game to generate billable trips. /s
I’ve heard an old story of someone who needed their leg amputated. They took a marker and wrote on the right leg: “Take this one”.
In the operating room, the surgeon exposed the left leg and started sawing. Never paid attention to the right leg — why bother? The Doc was sure the left leg was the problem ... so he just got to work.
This is what happens when you are brought to “St. God” hospital in Idiocracy.
My wife and I have discussed this option re the tats.
We are in basically good health. We are not alcoholics nor druggies or both.
Resuscitate him. A tattoo is not a legally executed DNR order.
We finally see something we confer on!.
Urban myth.
Fake news.
I’ve got a friend that’s a doctor and he has one of those tattoos, right over the heart. He says he actually expects it will be ignored, but when he wakes up with broken rips and electrical burns he plans to be pissed.
Now what if he had been younger and in pretty good condition but had a potentially fatal injury? Would the doctors have been quick to honor the DNR tattoo and send his body to the chop shop to be parted out?
Wonder what the backstory is?
From the article:
After reviewing the patient’s case, the ethics consultants advised us to honor the patient’s do not resuscitate (DNR) tattoo. They suggested that it was most reasonable to infer that the tattoo expressed an authentic preference, that what might be seen as caution could also be seen as standing on ceremony, and that the law is sometimes not nimble enough to support patient-centered care and respect for patients’ best interests.
In any case, social workers were later able to track down the man’s proper DNR paperwork, leaving doctors relieved, Holt said.
The man, who was never publicly identified, died the next morning.
They didn’t know how to read?
Perhaps he should have added if you resuscitate I will sue. Would have solved the “ethical” dilemma quickly
It’s easy. Anyone who wants to die should be allowed to do so. I like assisted suicide as well—Kevorkian should never have gone to jail.
A couple of years ago, in Florida, where my father was dying, a hospice nurse told us that a DNR was only valid if it were printed on a yellow sheet of paper. I have no idea whether that’s true in Florida, but she was convinced of it.