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Extubating Mrs. K: Psychological Aspects of Surrogate Decision Making

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2021

Tia Powell
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Extract

Mrs. K is a thirty-one-year-old Russian-speaking mother of two, who was brought in by ambulance after attempting suicide by jumping in front of train. Probable depression x months. Stressor: lost custody battle over older child. Current status: deep coma, ventilator-dependent, and prognosis grim. Next of kin is estranged husband; he demands participation in medical decision making. Legal proxy is patient's boyfriend; forcibly removed from the intensive care unit (ICU) for agitated behavior and alcohol intoxication.

I magine the difficulty for the ICU staff as it tries to patch together the broken body of Mrs. K, described above. If, as appears likely, the physicians’ efforts begin to fail, who will speak for this patient, who can no longer speak for herself, and determine the appropriate goals and limits of intensive medical care?

Type
Article
Information
Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics , Volume 27 , Issue 1 , Spring 1999 , pp. 81 - 86
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Law, Medicine and Ethics 1999

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