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Medical Futility in Resuscitation: Value Judgement and Clinical Judgement

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 July 2009

Michael Coogan
Michael Coogan
Affiliation:
University of Illinois at Chicago
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Extract

Mr. F. Smith was a 63-year-old man admitted to the Veterans Administration hospital with fever, respiratory distress, and a possible recurrent pneumonia. He had entered a community hospital with pneumonia approximately 18 months earlier. His 80 pack-year tobacco history and 10-year emphysema history complicated the clinical course on the first admission, and his status worsened to the point of respiratory failure. He suffered a cardiac arrest while on a ventilator in an intensive care unit. He was asystolic for approximately 5 minutes but was resuscitated.

Type
Special Section: Medical Futility: Demands, Duties, and Dilemmas
Information
Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics , Volume 2 , Issue 2 , Spring 1993 , pp. 197 - 217
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1993

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References

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