DNR - DO NOT RESUSCITATE?!


Question: DNR - DO NOT RESUSCITATE.?
I know that it is a completely personal decision, but WHY would someone want DNR status.? Generally, people would want doctors to do everything they can, including aggressive medical intervention to keep one alive.

If you have DNR status, can you tell me why (if you are comfortable) and your reasons behind confirming this.?Health Question & Answer


Answers:
Because you can be resuscitated but you may not be "alive". You could be completely brain dead on life support for ever. Many people do not consider than an option they want; especially if they are already elderly with multiple problems. Many people feel that death is the natural progression in life and should not be toyed with. DNR is often instigated when the outlook is grim anyway or anticipated to be futile and its a way to let nature take its course with out the often violent and brutal medical techniques to restart the heart. I think you may feel differently if you were to witness some of these options for yourself. I have been in many codes as a PA in the Peds ICU and in the ER and seen the results of many resuscitations. Some are heart warming and others are true disasters that should not be. Life at all cost is not the natural way, and many people accept this. This is not to say that every time someone gets sick the medical establishment gives up. There are very specific guidelines for DNR. I would want to be "saved" if I knew I would be like I was and able to enjoy more living; I would not want to be "saved" if I knew I was going to then linger in a deep coma, with a trach to breathe, a feeding tube, a diaper, multiple contractions to my extremities, constant pneumonia, urinary infections and the like, unaware of my surroundings, forgotten. In pain, maybe with cancer or other terminal diseases.

So, people do not always want aggressive medical intervention. At least we have the option to decide.Health Question & Answer

I'm not in that place yet, but something you may not understand is that people who have been diagnosed with a terminal illness know that the end is coming and they make the choice to not use extraordinary measures to keep them alive because that might mean that the machine becomes the living thing, not them. It is about choosing to accept what is coming and to die with as much grace and dignity as possible. Machines can keep you going and so can extraordinary measures, but the pain and suffering that could be the consequence of that can be beyond bearing. Especially so since we don't know how much of the mind is aware - would you want to be hooked up to machines and not be able to do a thing about it and have your mind be fully aware of everything. You have to realize that until maybe the 1960's medicine had it's limits and people accepted the inevitability of death. It is only with new advances in the past 40 years that people have been able to live longer on medications. It is only in the recent past that so many surgical procedures have advanced and knowledge gained, that doctors are able to save people that would have been dead before. It was in the 1967 that the first heart transplant took place - and that landmark time opened the door for so much more to come. We have advanced with techniques, but we need to leave room for humanity as well. DNR is allowing a person their humanity. It is allowing them to die with as much peace as possible.

It was my father's choice when the end was near, he knew he was going to die and was making peace with it. It will be my choice as well, I don't want a machine to be all that's left of me.Health Question & Answer

Generally a DNR is signed for someone very sick and about to die anyway. It's a way to allow them to die in peace not be beat on with CPR or paddles shocking them. If you have to preform CPR or other techniques like that for too long the persons brain is going to be deprived of oxygen so even though their heart is beating they'll be brain dead and not really alive anyway.Health Question & Answer

My grandfather had DNR. The family made the decision to allow this, simply because of his condition and his age. We didn't want to torment him by allowing him to live with the amount of pain that he had. I don't think living with having food forced through a straw in your neck is a life worth living.

When it's someone's time to go, then it is. Health Question & Answer

A lot of people don't want to be resuscitated because there are some chances that when they bring you back to life... you'd remain a vegetable for the rest of your life. And to some.... that's no life to live.
Others may not want to have it cuz bringing people back to life is playing the act of God. some people don't fancy that kind of power.
thats all i got for you... hope it helps!!Health Question & Answer

When you are old and suffering, you won't want to be beat on to keep you alive. Health Question & Answer

old or young some people have this order so they would not be kept alive and suffer more than they may already be suffering. Figuring let the natural order take placeHealth Question & Answer



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