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| Teresa M. Clemons, Office Manager |
My dear 82-year-old friend was admitted to
the hospital with some stomach issues by the attending ER physician. Before moving him to his room, hospital staff
members came to ask him a couple of questions. Their last question: do you have a DNR? Not completely understanding, he said, “If I
start to go, don’t bring me back. I
would never want to live hooked up to tubes or as a ‘vegetable.’” This “vegetable”
status is what came to his mind when thinking about a “failed”
resuscitation. They explained a bit more,
“If you go into cardiac arrest, we will not use the paddles or CPR to revive
you.” Again, he connected that to living
in a state that he would never want to be.
He said that he signed the form, thinking that the matter was resolved,
and they put a wrist band on him with “DNR” in bold, red letters.
In hearing about this, I told some of my
co-workers about his situation. They mentioned that DNRs, especially for a
relatively healthy man, are definitely not the norm. I made a few calls and discovered that my
friend had a Living Will. This document states that if he were to enter a
persistent vegetative state with NO chance of recovery, he did not want any
heroics to keep him alive. Instead, in that situation, he would just want pain
management and comfort care. However, for
the Living Will to go into effect, the patient would first need to be in a
vegetative state.
This is a HUGE difference from the DNR he
had signed. Compare two patients, one with
a DNR, one without. Both patients are
relatively healthy, but have a heart attack out of the blue. The non-DNR patient would receive routine
health-saving treatment, and would therefore have a good chance of recovery. The DNR patient, however, would not receive
this treatment and would be left to die, despite the strong likelihood that he could
return to a relatively normal lifestyle if the treatment had been administered.
My friend’s daughter called the hospital,
told them the situation, and asked them to take off the bracelet. The nurse told her that it is not that
easy. The daughter quickly went to the
hospital with a copy of his Living Will.
The staff took it and left the room. Again, the daughter told them to
take the bracelet off, and my friend requested this as well. Finally, the nurse asked everyone in the room
to be silent. She looked directly at my
friend and asked if he was freely requesting this change because this was his
wish, and not because he was being told what to do. He said yes, and clarified that he thought the
ER staff had been referring to the terms of his Living Will when he signed the DNR
form.
Please make yourself and your loved ones
aware of the major differences between a Living Will and a DNR. Fortunately, the confusion was resolved
quickly enough for my friend so there was no harm done. However, this could easily be a real “life or
death” mistake.
