Abstract

KIE: This case study and commentaries concern a terminally ill patient dying at home who is resuscitated and transported to a hospital emergency department despite having signed a living will refusing resuscitative efforts. Only after her identity is confirmed, and her medical records located at another hospital and interpreted, is treatment halted and the woman allowed to die. Iserson, a physician in emergency medicine, outlines the responsibilities of paramedics and emergency room personnel when confronted with an unfamiliar patient in an acute condition. He believes that the prehospital DNR order is an idea whose time has come, despite problems with its implementation in emergency settings. Rouse, director of legal services for the Society for the Right to Die, sees this case as an inevitable death made worse by confusion and uncertainty, and calls for education preparing family and care givers for death at home.