Calling a Death

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DISCLAIMER: I am not a nurse, I am not a nursing student, this is not a homework question, etc. Please don't flame me if I get the lingo wrong. I am just curious.............

I was watching a show called, "Trauma: Life in the ER" last night. There was an older man who was flown in due to a MVA. Well, he also had a MI when he got into the accident. He coded a few times and they eventually took him to surgery to stop internal bleeding. While on the OR table, he coded again. The doctor said he didn't feel any aortic (?) pressure. He then preceeded to ask everyone in the room "if they had a problem with that" (calling his death). My question is, would it really have mattered if anyone would have spoken up? What would the doctor have done if one of the nurses said yes? Just curious....

Thank you.

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Specializes in ICU.

basically, saying the patient is dead, there is really no chance of him making it back from any further attempts at revival. He was just asking if the team if they agreed mostly out of respect for the others in the revival effort.

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Specializes in ICU.

Perhaps the Dr would have given the rational to the nurse as to why any firther efforts would have been futile. It's the Dr running the case who has the final decision.

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Specializes in ICU.

Even though it sounds like he was a trauma surgeon, he may still have been a fellow or resident of some sort. Maybe covering his butt in case someone said 'direct cardiac massage!' or something along those lines.

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karebear,

What channel did you see this show on? It was one of my favorites that use to come on discovery health and now I can't find the show anywhere

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It's on Fit TV now

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Specializes in Critical Care.
Even though it sounds like he was a trauma surgeon, he may still have been a fellow or resident of some sort. Maybe covering his butt in case someone said 'direct cardiac massage!' or something along those lines.

Even in the ED when we have a code the doctor running the code will ask that question before he/she decides to basically end a person's life.

OP, this is done for a variety of reasons. One of them is that it lets anyone who can think of anything that could be tried have their say. In the heat of the moment it is easy to forget a drug we could try. This allows the other team members to say whether they feel everything has been done to care for the patient and everyone acknowledges that the options have been exhausted.

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I'm not an ER nurse, but spent a few weeks doing a stint in the ER. We had a MVA and the doctor asked the same thing... "Anyone else have any ideas?" I think it's a matter of respect and making sure everythings been covered. Only experienced it once though.

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Specializes in ICU, Telemetry.

Most of the docs I work with do this before we call a code. Once, I saw a nurse ask for one more epi, and the person actually had a RSC. However, because of the underlying conditions which led to the code, the person ended up coding again before the shift was over, and since we'd "saved" them, the family -- who was there by that time -- demanded we keep going. We coded them a total of 5 separate times. It was absolutely horrible. The final time we were doing compressions, I felt like I was kneading bread dough with rice krispies in it -- we'd broken every bone in the poor soul's chest, expected in someone 90+. The doc made them come in and watch the last resc effort, and when they saw what "do everything" actually meant, they asked us to stop.

So, yes, someone can make a suggestion, and the docs will listen, but like the old adage says....be careful what you ask for...

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Specializes in Emergency/Cath Lab.

Also the doc doesnt see everything that is going on so they might have missed something. I know that once someone said his family is almost here so we kept him "alive" long enough for his wife to see him again.

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Sometimes it's on OWN (late, late night)

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Specializes in CCT.

Part of being a resucitation team leader is taking input from team members. The doc was just making sure he had everyone's.

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