# A man collapsed with ‘Do Not Resuscitate’ tattooed on his chest. Doctors didn’t know what to do.



## MMiz (Dec 1, 2017)

A man collapsed with ‘Do Not Resuscitate’ tattooed on his chest. Doctors didn’t know what to do.

Doctors in Miami faced an unusual ethical dilemma when an unconscious, deteriorating patient was brought into the emergency room with the words “Do Not Resuscitate” across his chest.

Read more!


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## Carlos Danger (Dec 1, 2017)

Saw this earlier somewhere else. Pretty interesting.


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## elshion (Dec 5, 2017)

Compress and inflate while someone else calls up your state office to confirm existance/absence of a DNR. You can always terminate, but once you stop you have that very miniscule window to start up again


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## DrParasite (Dec 5, 2017)

> invoking the principle of not choosing an irreversible path when faced with uncertainty


It's easier to apologize for saving someone's life vs explaining why you let someone die who didn't want to. 

But cases like this are why there are clear reasons what clear forms are needed for DNRs:





> Doctors treating the elderly patient knew of “a cautionary tale” published in 2012 in the Journal of General Internal Medicine. That paper told of a 59-year-old patient who had a “D.N.R.” tattoo across his chest but said he wanted lifesaving measures to be taken, in the event that he needed them.
> 
> When the patient was asked why he had the tattoo, he told doctors he had “lost a bet playing poker,” according to the report.


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## Carlos Danger (Dec 5, 2017)

DrParasite said:


> It's easier to apologize for saving someone's life vs explaining why you let someone die who didn't want to.



Generally, but not always. As usual, the devil is in the details. 

What made this situation difficult wasn’t the legalities - everyone knows that a DNR tattoo is not a legal document - it was the fact that given the overall picture, it seemed likely that the tattoo was an accurate reflection of the patient’s wishes. Patient’s wishes should be honored whenever possible.


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## Jim37F (Dec 6, 2017)

Isn't a "DNR tattoo" pretty much THE go to hypothetical whenever the topic comes up? And hasn't the answer pretty much always been "NO....a tattoo is not a legal document, you don't know whether it's ironic or a joke or serious, you can't honor the tattoo" Plus I've been told that even when presented with the proper legal form, if it's improperly filled out I can't honor it, or if there's ever any doubt, start at least BLS measures...now granted when you're an MD a lot of bucks stop with you and you can't just call medical control everytime something, not in a rigid protocol comes up, but still......


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## ThadeusJ (Dec 6, 2017)

Interesting that the tattoo included a copy of his signature as well (blanked out in the attached pic).  Personally, I have a tattoo on my vocal chords that reads, "If you can read this you are too close".


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## Mike Hammer (Jan 22, 2018)

Pretty interesting stuff. Sounds like they made the right call--would have hated to try to explain that to family if it had been wrong...

Also, I appreciated the comments on the online registry. Why would you not do that to make the process easier/instantly get data access to verify. 

I'm even more curious why this guy went all the way to a tattoo for this. Would have liked to has talked with him about the decision.

Thanks for sharing OP.


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