Coronavirus: Doctors urge conversations about dying

[Shiloh]

Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/health-51981099

Coronavirus: Doctors urge conversations about dying
By Dr Faye Kirkland BBC News
54 minutes ago

Palliative care doctors are urging people to have a conversation about what they would want if they, or their loved ones, became seriously unwell with coronavirus.

We should discuss all possible scenarios - even those we are not "comfortable to talk about", they said.

Medics said the virus underlined the importance of these conversations.

New guidelines are being produced for palliative care for Covid-19 patients, the BBC understands.

Dr Iain Lawrie, president of The Association for Palliative Medicine of Great Britain and Ireland, told the BBC that palliative care teams around the country were working together to create the guidance.

He said the impact of the virus was likely to change how palliative care would be delivered in future...

 

[Thornton]

Hospitals consider universal do-not-resuscitate orders for coronavirus patients

(from https://twitter.com/TinyEnergies/status/1242995892682199042)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/03/25/coronavirus-patients-do-not-resucitate/

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Hospitals on the front lines of the pandemic are engaged in a heated private debate over a calculation few have encountered in their lifetimes — how to weigh the “save at all costs” approach to resuscitating a dying patient against the real danger of exposing doctors and nurses to the contagion of coronavirus.

The conversations are driven by the realization that the risk to staff amid dwindling stores of protective equipment — such as masks, gowns and gloves — may be too great to justify the conventional response when a patient “codes,” and their heart or breathing stops.