So Death Walked into a Bar...

Who knew that a DNR order stands for exactly what it abbreviates? In my experience, far too many health care professionals seem to read those three letters as DNT (Do Not Treat). Two out of three ain't bad, right? Wrong (just like that song - great, now I'll be singing it all night).

To be fair, Western medicine just simply isn't comfortable with the whole pesky notion of human mortality. "He's going to die anyway,so we might as well hang up our skates." Isn't that really the whole point? That because death is inevitable (sorry Doogie ), we are not FAILING by acknowledging it? I mean, you could just sweep Death under the rug, but everybody would know he was there when somebody trips over the Reaper-shaped bump.

I can hear it now on the 2300 taped report: "Mr. Smith, 79 years old with COPD and pneumonia. His IV came out, so I didn't restart it. He's got a 0200 antibiotic but he's a DNR." That's a little like saying, "I had to go to the store to buy some groceries. We have no food in the cupboards but I like the color purple." I was totally following you until we got to the colour purple thing ...

I guess the whole point of this rambling, name-dropping post is that Mr. Smith should meet his end because his heart stopped beating and doctors elected (based on the patient's wishes and prognosis) to refrain from zapping him into tomorrow with those handy
paddles. Mr. Smith should not be playing cards with Abe Lincoln and Elvis Presley because medical personnel didn't deem administering antibiotics for his underlying pneumonia a priority.