To the Editor.— The importance of patient participation in the decision not to resuscitate is widely accepted.1 Bedell et al,2 in a study of 521 patients who had a cardiopulmonary arrest, found that 76% of do-not-resuscitate (DNR) orders were written without patient participation because of abnormal mental status (due to dementia, encephalopathy, or coma).
Study.— We examined a cohort of 133 consecutive admissions to an acute medical ward of a 966-bed teaching hospital. We looked for the presence of delirium both on admission and prospectively until discharge using DSM-III criteria, a definition inclusive of both encephalopathy and coma. In addition, we took note of any history of dementia and whether a DNR order was written.Thirteen (72%) of the 18 patients who died in our cohort were designated DNR, four from the day of admission and nine later in the hospital course. Ten (77%) of the 13 patients
Country-Specific Mortality and Growth Failure in Infancy and Yound Children and Association With Material Stature
Use interactive graphics and maps to view and sort country-specific infant and early dhildhood mortality and growth failure data and their association with maternal
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