by Samantha Allen

Created on: February 11, 2010

Resuscitation of human life is an event understood by few but judged by many. Some individuals feel that allowing a loved one to sign a "Do Not Resuscitate" order, also known as a DNR, or signing one themselves, is condoning a passive suicide. To truly understand this issue, one must fully understand what resuscitation entails.

As a respiratory therapist, I have participated in a large number of these events. When a person is a "full code", or does not have a DNR order, we in the hospital setting do everything in our power as a medical team to save that person's life. When we find that a person is dying or is dangerously close, we activate a code team.  

The patient is hooked up to a monitor, which electrically checks the rhythm of the heart, as we check for breathing and a pulse. If the patient is not breathing or is having too much difficultly, a tube is placed in the patient's airway. They are then hooked up to a life support machine called a ventilator that takes over the work of breathing, or we breathe for the patient by hand using a resuscitator bag until a heartbeat is regained. 

If the heart is not beating, a member of code team begins chest compressions. Chest compressions are nothing like what we all watch on TV-to pump the heart inside the chest, ribs usually have to be broken, and you must compress hard and fast to circulate the blood through the body. In the meantime, drugs are being pushed through IVs (hopefully the patient has one or two IV accesses already, or this makes drug administration difficult) to speed up or slow down the heart as needed. 

If the ventricles of the heart are not pumping, but instead quivering without pumping blood (known as ventricular fibrillation), the heart is shocked with electricity to hopefully put it back into a regular rhythm.

When one chooses to become a DNR, they make the active choice to allow nature to take its course for their body in the event that they are dying or close to death. It can be rescinded at any time; a patient can choose to become a full code at any point. DNR does not equate to a death sentence or even a passive suicide. 

Regardless of one's beliefs, and regardless of all the drugs and medical technology available, our bodies will eventually stop working, or die. Until then, it is the right of the individual or designated next of kin to choose whether or not resuscitation is an appropriate measure in prolonging life.

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