Posted on 05/09/2006 7:22:52 AM PDT by Sopater
Mary Sundborg was a spirited woman of 100 ½ who had long endured advanced colon cancer and two strokes. And she knew how she wanted to die: at home, peacefully, with dignity.
So with the help of her eldest son, she signed an official order specifically directing emergency responders not to attempt CPR.
Then came Jan. 3, the day Sundborg stopped breathing. Her nurse, who wasn't sure at first what was happening, called 911. When emergency medical technicians (EMTs) from the Fire Department arrived at her Magnolia home, they pulled her out of bed, attached their equipment and began pushing on her chest.
"Put her back in bed!" the nurse yelled. Sundborg didn't want to be resuscitated, she told them, waving the "No-CPR" order. One of the emergency workers told her the order had expired, and kept going.
But Sundborg was dead.
[SNIP]
Withholding resuscitation
The study of the "Compelling Reasons" protocol by Sylvia Feder and Roger Matheny, published in the May 2, 2006, issue of Annals of Internal Medicine, found:
• After the protocol was adopted in South King County, CPR was withheld more than twice as often in cardiac-arrest cases.
• In the majority of those cases, emergency workers were honoring verbal requests.
• In private homes, only about a third of families offered written directives.
• In all cases in which CPR was withheld, patients had terminal conditions (35 percent had terminal cancer, 63 percent had another terminal condition such as renal failure, and one patient had an unknown terminal condition with hospice in attendance).
• More than 90 percent of the EMTs said they were comfortable making the decision, and none found it difficult.
Source: Annals of Internal Medicine, Vol. 144, No. 9, 2 May 2006
(Excerpt) Read more at seattletimes.nwsource.com ...
If you are terminal you just want to go..............
Yes. And I will add....make your wishes very clear..verbally AND IN WRITING..when being admitted to any hospital. Out patient...or in patient.
FWIW-
...and no longer freakin'
Age is not the only factor for me........
DNR!
I had this same experience in my paramedic days some 20 years ago. I responded to a 911 call for "cardiac arrest". The patients was a mid fifties male. His wife basically told us not to start CPR as he had more than 60% of his heart muscle already dead from previous heart attacks and was terminally ill. One of his kids had called 911 in a panic. My partner and I had no personal problem with following her wishes, but spent a lot of time documenting what happened. It was sure a lot better than my first "defib" ... a woman 99 years old in a nursing home ..staff had "forgotten" she was a DNR (do not resuscitate).
Thanks for this wacky-kids', bright-my-day, feelin' good, fun-happy topic.
You're right, there's the emotional distress for family watching a love one die without getting them help. And once paramedics are on scene, everything in their training is about saving lives, not standing around watching someone die.
A really tough situation all around.
My sis in law is caring for an older cancer patient. My hubby, as a firefighter, told her.....post "Do not call 911" signs all over the house. Make sure everyone knows it.
They are required to recussitate.
Maybe you want them to come if you fall and break your hip, but not if you stop breathing. The story indicates that the nurse who called 911 wasn't sure what was happening.
I'm certain that a DNR order applies to natural death from age or disease, but question whether it would apply to a survivable accident.
Lucky for the revived choking victim they didn't strangle him to comply with the DNR
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