By Steven Reichert, MD, Director, Palliative Care Mr. B. is a 58-year-old man with COPD who presents to the emergency room with increasing swelling and pain in his legs. In the ER, he is noted to […]
Ethics
The Rules for Living and Dying
By Steven Reichert, MD, Director, Palliative Care The hospital admits a 50-year-old woman with a history of obesity, drug abuse and bipolar illness after she was found in the street with evidence of head trauma. A […]
The Ethical Challenges of COVID-19
The COVID-19 pandemic presented oursociety with a crisis not seen for generations. One part of the COVID crisis has deep roots in medical ethics. The challenges have ranged from as simple as wearing a mask in public, to
as complex as usage of lifesaving treatments such as ventilators or dialysis. The decisions and judgments made by national leaders, hospitals and at times individual health care providers often invoked
Ethics: When Decisions are Not so Clear Cut
By Steven Reichert, MD, Director, Palliative Care A 60-year-old man presents to the emergency room via ambulance with complaints of severe shortness of breath and malaise. He has a history of bipolar illness, severe COPD and […]
Ethics: Fractious Family Muddles End-of-Life Decisions
Mr. B is an 80-year-old man with a history of prior stroke, dementia and chronic kidney disease who is admitted to the ICU from home with aspiration pneumonia, respiratory and renal failure. He is intubated in the emergency department and after several days extubated. His baseline health status is poor. He is bed- bound, unable to communicate other than basic nonverbal gestures and had been taking increasingly smaller amounts of food and liquid at home.