Doctors: don’t make us resuscitate elderly

Nursing home residents should be permitted to decide whether medical staff should resuscitate them in the case of heart failure.

Current law requires staff to administer life-saving first aid, even if it is against the wishes of residents.

Bruno Melgaard Jensen, the head of the Danish Medical Association, called it “grotesque” that staff could be forced to resuscitate a person they knew did not want to live or who was likely to live for just a short period after.

Nurses said they felt it was an “ethical dilemma”.

Heart defibrillators have been installed as standard safety equipment in many buildings in recent years and health authorities say they plan to issue new guidelines about when it is acceptable not to attempt to resuscitate a person.

Jyllands-Posten 

SEE RELATED: Danes: Eldercare not a family responsibility

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