The Ethical Considerations of Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation
Faculty Mentor
Nate Lawton
Presentation Type
Poster
Start Date
5-8-2024 9:00 AM
End Date
5-8-2024 10:45 AM
Location
PUB NCR
Primary Discipline of Presentation
Physical Education, Health and Recreation
Abstract
Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) is an indispensable tool for prolonging and saving the lives of those experiencing a cardiac event. Public understanding of the physically traumatic nature of CPR is limited, and successful CPR often means the patient will still spend the rest of their life failing to recover in a hospital (Girotra et al., 2012). Of the 51% of elderly patients (65yo+) who survive CPR after in-hospital cardiac arrests, two-thirds die before they are discharged and of the remaining third, more than half will suffer from moderate to severe neurologic disability (Peberdy et al., 2003). The lack of public understanding of the realities of CPR causes many families to request resuscitative care in situations with little to no likelihood of success, often resulting in a distressful and drawn-out death. The first encounter with CPR for most people comes in the form of Tv and movies (Diem et al., 1996). Although this often imparts the importance of CPR, it also often displays a vastly incorrect version of the procedure, its effectiveness, and its ramifications (Puri, 2023). This leads to important end-of-life decisions being made on false pretenses. The aim of this literature review is to outline the failings of the current use of CPR and how an improved public awareness about these failings may improve them.
Recommended Citation
Diem, S. J., Lantos, J. D., & Tulsky, J. A. (1996). Cardiopulmonary resuscitation on television. Miracles and misinformation. The New England journal of medicine, 334(24), 1578–1582. https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJM199606133342406 Girotra, S., Nallamothu, B. K., Spertus, J. A., Li, Y., Krumholz, H. M., Chan, P. S., & American Heart Association Get with the Guidelines–Resuscitation Investigators (2012). Trends in survival after in-hospital cardiac arrest. The New England journal of medicine, 367(20), 1912–1920. https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMoa1109148 Peberdy, M. A., Kaye, W., Ornato, J. P., Larkin, G. L., Nadkarni, V., Mancini, M. E., Berg, R. A., Nichol, G., & Lane-Trultt, T. (2003). Cardiopulmonary resuscitation of adults in the hospital: a report of 14720 cardiac arrests from the National Registry of Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation. Resuscitation, 58(3), 297–308. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0300-9572(03)00215-6 Puri, S. (2023, August 5). The hidden harms of CPR. The New Yorker. https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-weekend-essay/the-hidden-harms-of-cpr
Creative Commons License
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The Ethical Considerations of Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation
PUB NCR
Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) is an indispensable tool for prolonging and saving the lives of those experiencing a cardiac event. Public understanding of the physically traumatic nature of CPR is limited, and successful CPR often means the patient will still spend the rest of their life failing to recover in a hospital (Girotra et al., 2012). Of the 51% of elderly patients (65yo+) who survive CPR after in-hospital cardiac arrests, two-thirds die before they are discharged and of the remaining third, more than half will suffer from moderate to severe neurologic disability (Peberdy et al., 2003). The lack of public understanding of the realities of CPR causes many families to request resuscitative care in situations with little to no likelihood of success, often resulting in a distressful and drawn-out death. The first encounter with CPR for most people comes in the form of Tv and movies (Diem et al., 1996). Although this often imparts the importance of CPR, it also often displays a vastly incorrect version of the procedure, its effectiveness, and its ramifications (Puri, 2023). This leads to important end-of-life decisions being made on false pretenses. The aim of this literature review is to outline the failings of the current use of CPR and how an improved public awareness about these failings may improve them.
