Ethics Committees and Blood Transfusions II

Rosemary Flanigan
April 7, 2009

Thanks to all of you who ruminated on the suggestion that ethics committees review orders for over 7 units of blood!! Those would have to be very special ethics committees and supported by a very special medical staff!!

John Carney said 2/3 of patients who didn’t want CPR, for example, “want other measures of life-sustaining treatments.”

So the question is, “How does the hospital respond in such cases?” And I would answer, “However the patient decides”—on the POLST or TPOPP forms where they list the “other measures” they want. Of course, this demands an institutional commitment and a medical staff commitment.

BUT it certainly calls for a literate, thoughtful patient-body!!!! And isn’t that what so many of us have been about these many years?

And not just us—but our surrogates as well.