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 …