Tattoo leaves doctors with life-or-death dilemma

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TRAN DINH LUYEN, former Vietnamese soldier MIAMI: A hospital faced an unsettling ethical quandary when paramedics brought in an unconscious patient with “Do Not Resuscitate” (DNR) tattooed across his chest — leaving doctors grappling with whether the message conveyed his end-of-life wishes.

The man, 70, was admitted to the Jackson Memorial Hospital here with respiratory problems, a high blood alcohol concentration and no documents, according to the doctors’ story published on Thursday in The New England Journal of Medicine.

“This patient’s tattooed DNR request produced more confusion than clarity,” doctors said, saying they “initially decided not to honour the tattoo”.

But considering the patient might have gone to extreme lengths to ensure his will was understood — the word “No” on his chest was underlined, and the message included his signature — medical personnel requested an ethics consultation.

The consultants advised the doctors to honour the tattoo, and the man died during the night.

Social workers eventually found a copy of the man’s “outof-hospital” DNR order from the southern state’s Health Department — and doctors were “relieved” that it was consistent with the tattoo.

The medical team had hesitated due to a 2012 case of a 59-yearold man, who was hospitalised with the message “DNR” on his chest.

The patient later confirmed that the tattooed message was not indicative of his wishes, saying it was simply the result of a bet made during his youth while intoxicated. AFP