I have noticed during my short time as an ED nurse that many of the cardiac arrest cases that come in through my ED (while I was on shift) seemed to be a waste. I've never seen anyone achieve ROSC that had a chance of actually recovering meaningful function (more seasoned staff saying they may die in ICU or live out their lives in a "vent farm"). Maybe some of the patients may recover, but they certainly never woke up after CPR.
There was a trauma case that came in a very severe car accident and the person was already in cardiac arrest when they rolled in and we spent at least 30 to 40 minutes trying to save this guy. He must have got like 8 units of blood and died anyway.
I feel like sometimes my efforts and the efforts of the team are wasted and that we should have stopped sooner.