This discussion of health care professionals is unethical, disgraceful and amounts to waving the surrender flag. I am astounded this is even being considered. The problems are already solved to save every person with COVID-19.
To begin, if this practice was ever instituted, it would be a violation of the law. Ventilators have been proven to successfully support two patients at a time WHEN NEEDED. "Pressure Support" settings expand the COMPETENT ability of a ventilator. There is nothing wrong with that. Clinical trials can be ongoing during this pandemic.
This discussion of a universal DNR is not becoming to the USA. It is one step away from euthanasia and then we look like Russia.
This discussion puts USA medicine in direct conflict with professional standards.
Patients will not seek medical attention and die in their homes. There will be a "sacrificial lamb" culture entered into the USA culture in general. To put it plainly this is ludicrous.
The United States of America has faced worse case scenarios before and rose above it, that will hold true this time as well. The poor will make it through with all the same problems they had before. The idea of a universal DNR is out of the question. It will alienate Americans from medicine and return them to the anti-vaccine culture and wife's tales. Maybe that's the goal, but, this is really, really bad ethical standards for American medicine.
March 25, 2020
By Ariana Eunjung Cha
Hospitals on the front lines of the pandemic (click here) are engaged in a heated private debate over a calculation few have encountered in their lifetimes — how to weigh the “save at all costs” approach to resuscitating a dying patient against the real danger of exposing doctors and nurses to the contagion of coronavirus.
The conversations are driven by the realization that the risk to staff amid dwindling stores of protective equipment — such as masks, gowns and gloves — may be too great to justify the conventional response when a patient “codes,” and their heart or breathing stops.
Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago has been discussing a do-not-resuscitate policy for infected patients, regardless of the wishes of the patient or their family members — a wrenching decision to prioritize the lives of the many over the one.
