DID YOU KNOW?

Susan Rosendahl-Masella, PhD
Ethics Network Coordinator
NYCLTCEN

Did you know that on May 4, 2000, the television series ER featured a plot line that dealt with the end-of-life care topics of palliative care, hospice and grief?

Speaking about TV, did you know the success rate of CPR on popular television shows is astoundingly high and that nearly every patient given CPR survives? Thus, most people in the community have no clue about what happens during a code and they have a false impression of the success rate of CPR. Unfortunately, because of media stereotypes, people believe that there is a high rate of success for CPR. People may not know, for example, that the success rate for CPR for cardiac arrest in the nursing home is less than one half of one percent. To read more about this topic see the article written by Charles Meyer (1999) in the electronic newsletter Last Acts entitled Options for a Good Death. In the article, Rev. Meyer also states that most people have no idea what really happens when CPR is initiated on a frail, elderly patient—the possibility of cracked ribs and punctured lungs, that the patient will be intubated or put on a ventilator and placed in ICU.

Did you know the translation of the term “health care proxy” on the New York State health care proxy form into Spanish is apoderado para casos de assistencia medica which means someone who has power in cases of medical need. This is very different from the English term for proxy, which means a stand-in who is empowered to act for the patient. Morrison, Zayas, Mulvihill et al. (1998) reported that the term health care proxy caused confusion among the Hispanic participants in their study. In fact, Morrison et al. reported that most of the Hispanics in their sample were “’put off’ by the implication that someone had ‘power over them’ to make medical decisions (p. 121).” One of the participants said, “Well a proxy is the power. It’s like the one who rules the other person (p.121).” The Morrison et al. study which was titled Barriers to Completion of Healthcare Proxy Forms: A Qualitative Analysis of Ethnic Differences appeared in Volume 9, Number 2 of The Journal of Clinical Ethics.

Did you know that “AND” is being proposed as an alternative to DNR? The reason AND or, Allow Natural Death, has been proposed is because of the negativism associated with the DNR—i.e., that people only hear the word “not” in “do not resuscitate” and they think that they are giving permission to terminate their loved one’s life, which is not true. Asking for a DNR does not mean that there is an end to care. Using an order to Allow Natural Death means that the dying process will be allowed to occur as comfortably as possible. To read more about AND please see The Rev. Chuck Meyer’s article in the Last Act’s Open Forum section entitled, Allow Natural Death—An Alternative to DNR? The article was posted on 4/19/2000 on the Last Acts web site—http://www.lastacts.org.

Did You Know? was published in the Spring 2000 edition of the Ethics Network News, 6(2).
Article available on-line at: https://www.angelfire.com/on/NYCLTCethicsnetwork/My2000know.html

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