BMJ 1994;309:670 (10 September)

Letters

Should relatives watch resuscitation? A haunting experience in Nepal

EDITOR, - I wish to contribute my experience to the debate concerning whether relatives should be allowed to witness resuscitation.1,2 While I was a medical student doing my elective in Nepal a large earthquake occurred there. In the first 24 hours afterwards the hospital, staffed by three doctors and three medical students, was overwhelmed by 500 casualties. On the same day a 35 year old woman attempted suicide by ingesting organophosphorus weedkiller. Her husband had left her for her younger sister, and she was thus homeless with four children. Debate ensued: in view of the hospital being overrun by earthquake victims should she be treated? The potential consequences of her death to her children, however, led to her being admitted to a makeshift intensive care unit. Her children slept on a bench on the veranda outside.

In the absence of a bleep system a cardiac arrest occurring in the unit . . . [Full text of this article]


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Relevant Article

Should relatives be allowed to watch resuscitation?
S Adams, M Whitlock, P J F Baskett, P Bloomfield, and R Higgs
BMJ 1994 308: 1687-1689. [Extract] [Full Text]

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