Thursday, May 18, 2006

While You're Tattooing "Do Not Resuscitate" On Your Chest

There's been a lot of press lately about an 80 year old woman who had "do not resuscitate" tattooed on her chest. This is a good idea, but it's too vague, since DNR only applies if a person's heart stops or they stop breathing. To eliminate any ambiguity, the following additional tattoos should also be considered:

"no artificial hydration or nutrition"

"no cardioversion for rapid atrial fibrillation"

"no intubation and mechanical ventilation for potentially reversible conditions"

"no pressors if hypotensive"

"no painful, high risk surgical procedures with a very low likelihood of success"

"...and no dialysis under any circumstances"

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I will be getting the brand of my pacemaker or ICD. I will be getting the the bypass graft anatomy for any bypasses I have (LIMA to LAD, SVG to Diag, OM, PDA). That way it will be easy to cath or interrogate my device should I be found down.

Anonymous said...

Seems to me the tattoo process might kill you by the time you finish that tome.

Unknown said...

This is sounding like the medical version of Prison Break.

Regards - Shinga