- Joined
- Apr 24, 2005
- Messages
- 47,555
- Likes
- 33,619
What about the concept of involuntarily removing someone from a life support system because someone else would have a better chance with it? Have you been doing that for years, or has the policy been "once you are on a machine you will not be removed until it is medically advisable for you, the individual patient?".What I'm trying to convey is that (as someone in the medical field) these aren't rules that "tie the doctors hands." These are the rules that doctors have come up with for how to best save lives. After countless incidents, we've come up with a system to best limit the loss of life. These scoring and triage criteria are what we have been using for years, before Obama or any of us were even born, to best decide how to handle health care.
There will always be triage situations like two MIs are adjacent bays in the ER but only one cath lab and team is available ... who gets to go first? If you have a 70 year old being wheeled to the cath lab would it be protocol for the ER to call with "we have a 35 year old, have you opened the femoral yet? If not, send him back to the ER to wait behind the younger patient"
This is getting more attention because it is large scale.