DNR stands for Do Not Resuscitate. It is a legal order for doctors to withhold treatment in thecase of heart or breathing failure.
In the US, 80% of people say that when facing a terminal illness, they would prefer to avoidaggressive life-saving treatment. This number increases to nearly 90% among doctors. Thismay be because doctors are more knowledgeable about the suffering and reduced quality oflife after treatments such as CPR and electric shock. Despite these high numbers, doctors regularly give these treatments unless there is an officialDNR on file. But what do they do when there is an unofficial DNR? Doctors at Jackson Hospitalfaced this dilemma when an unconscious patient was found to have a DNR tattoo on his chest. It said, “DO NOT RESUSCITATE” with the ‘NOT’ underlined. The elderly patient had no ID and a high blood alcohol level. Aside from that and the tattoo,they had nothing to go on. They couldn’t find any medical records and didn’t know if thetattoo was a joke or the man’s true wishes. Dr. Holt, the physician on duty said, “We alwayskind of joked around about doing that. A lot of physicians say, ‘Boy, I’m going to have thattattooed on my chest so everyone knows my status’. Then you see it and…holy crap,”
If the tattoo were just a joke, it wouldn’t be the first time. In another case, a doctor noticed theletters D.N.R. tattooed on a man’s chest and asked him about it. He said he got the tattoobecause he lost a bet as a young man and he didn’t think anyone would take it seriously.
In the case of the Miami man, Dr. Holt and the other Jackson Hospital doctors weren’t so sureit was a joke. The tattoo even included a signature. And Dr. Holt pointed out the placement ofthe tattoo on the chest was exactly the spot in which CPR treatment would be given.
There are a lot of rules for a legal DNR. In Florida, there is even a rule about the color of paperthat it needs to be on. There’s nothing mentioned about tattoos. Despite this, the doctorsdecided that the tattoo did probably represent the man’s true wishes and should berespected. Nearly 2 hours after the decision had been made, an official DNR order on paperwas found. The man died the following morning. Some would say it was a more peaceful andnatural death.
Doctor Holt says of the man’s decision to get the tattoo, “It also seemed that he didn’t trustthat his end-of-life wishes would be conveyed appropriately. So, to me, it means we need abetter system.”
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