When Resuscitation Is Obligatory

From Thaddeus Pope’s blog: 

"Dr. Monica Williams-Murphy vividly recalls performing emergency chest compressions on a 100-year-old nursing home patient with advanced dementia.  Lacking a Do Not Resuscitate order, Williams-Murphy was obligated to do all she could to try to save a woman that she knew was beyond saving. 'I wasn't going to bring her back to something better.' That experience got the Huntsville, Alabama Hospital emergency department physician thinking about why frail elderly people often get the 'full-court medical press' at the end, rather than being allowed to slip away peacefully. The result is 'It's OK to Die,' a new self-published book that she hopes spurs readers to have those difficult but important conversations about end-of-life decisions."