Do Not Resuscitate

March 29, 2011, 8:44 pmDoctor Psychobabble4 comments

I just got home from the hospital. It’s late and I’m tired, dirty and hungry, but happy.

For those of you not familiar with medical lingo, “DNR” stands for “Do Not Resuscitate.” If a patient is “DNR” it means that if they were to go into cardiac arrest, we would not do chest compressions and push all kinds of meds in order to restart their heart. It does NOT mean that we won’t do other measures to keep them alive. I have some interesting thoughts on this concept, but just realized that I’m too tired to elaborate. But I plan to share my thoughts in the near future. Promise.

DNR

In the meantime, please enjoy this “DNR” subway sign. Time for chow down. Nitey.

  • http://www.northcoaststables.com Jon

    Ever since I was a lowly NA back in the mid 70′s and had to deal with this issue, I have been fascinated by end of life discussions. I have dealt with it professionally and personally with humans and animals. I eagerly await your thoughts.

  • Dr. Psychobabble

    I’m equally fascinated, both in the human and animal world. Thoughts to follow, promise. :)

  • http://www.TheseScrubs.com Doug S

    I’m interested in your thoughts about the DNR patient. This year at Ross, we had a DNR simulation. I was the nincompoop who was shouting “don’t stop compression” when the non-attending, but authoritative “doctor” stormed in on our resuscitation in progress with DNR order in hand (it wasn’t with the chart). Great lesson, but also stirred some great debate among first years.

    Doug S

  • Dr. Psychobabble

    So cool to hear that you guys are having good simulation cases…I think you can learn so much from them! DNR thoughts to come in the future…. :)