Jonathan Turley recently wrote about an interesting case in which doctors at a Miami Hospital decided to stop providing help to a patient because of a "do not resuscitate tattoo." The story is interesting because, according to the report, Florida only recognizes DNRs if they are provided in a specific form. If this is true, the doctors did not act according to the state's law. Here is part of the story:
"Doctors at the Jackson Memorial Hospital faced a novel issue when a 70-year-old man was brought into the emergency room after being found intoxicated and unconscious on the street. . . . The doctors were working to assist the man when someone noticed a large chest tattoo reading “DO NOT RESUSCITATE.” It even had a tattoo signature. After consulting an “ethics expert,” the hospital treated the tattoo as a viable DNR form and allowed the man to die. In my view, the expert was wrong on the law if his decision was based solely on the tattoo.
Florida agencies have a specific form and states: Do Not Resuscitate Order—Form 1896 (Multilingual) Important! In order to be legally valid this form MUST be printed on yellow paper prior to being completed. EMS and medical personnel are only required to honor the form if it is printed on yellow paper.
The form has a place for a physician’s signature and required showings of informed consent. Florida does not recognize a metal DNR bracelet or necklace. A patient may carry a “patient identification device”, a smaller version of DH Form 1896 for their wallet or even a chain.
The problem is that “Do Not Resuscitate” teeshirts and tattoos are common jokes. There was no way that the staff could determine if this was a joke or waiver.
A similar case was discussed in a 2012 article in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, involving a 59-year-old patient. He had “D.N.R.” tattoo across his chest but he said the tattoo was a joke and the result of losing a bet in poker."The doctors involved wrote the following Letter to the Editor of the New England Journal of Medicine:
We present the case of a person whose presumed code-status preference led him to tattoo “Do Not Resuscitate” on his chest. Paramedics brought an unconscious 70-year-old man with a history of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, diabetes mellitus, and atrial fibrillation to the emergency department, where he was found to have an elevated blood alcohol level. The staff of the medical intensive care unit evaluated him several hours later when hypotension and an anion-gap metabolic acidosis with a pH of 6.81 developed. His anterior chest had a tattoo that read “Do Not Resuscitate,” accompanied by his presumed signature. Because he presented without identification or family, the social work department was called to assist in contacting next of kin. All efforts at treating reversible causes of his decreased level of consciousness failed to produce a mental status adequate for discussing goals of care.
We initially decided not to honor the tattoo, invoking the principle of not choosing an irreversible path when faced with uncertainty. This decision left us conflicted owing to the patient’s extraordinary effort to make his presumed advance directive known; therefore, an ethics consultation was requested. He was placed on empirical antibiotics, received intravenous fluid resuscitation and vasopressors, and was treated with bilevel positive airway pressure.
After reviewing the patient’s case, the ethics consultants advised us to honor the patient’s do not resuscitate (DNR) tattoo. They suggested that it was most reasonable to infer that the tattoo expressed an authentic preference, that what might be seen as caution could also be seen as standing on ceremony, and that the law is sometimes not nimble enough to support patient-centered care and respect for patients’ best interests. A DNR order was written. Subsequently, the social work department obtained a copy of his Florida Department of Health “out-of-hospital” DNR order, which was consistent with the tattoo. The patient’s clinical status deteriorated throughout the night, and he died without undergoing cardiopulmonary respiration or advanced airway management.
This patient’s tattooed DNR request produced more confusion than clarity, given concerns about its legality and likely unfounded beliefs that tattoos might represent permanent reminders of regretted decisions made while the person was intoxicated. We were relieved to find his written DNR request, especially because a review of the literature identified a case report of a person whose DNR tattoo did not reflect his current wishes. Despite the well-known difficulties that patients have in making their end-of-life wishes known, this case report neither supports nor opposes the use of tattoos to express end-of-life wishes when the person is incapacitated.
UPDATE 1/21/18: NPR recently picked up the story here.
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