‘Sophie’s Choice’ in the time of coronavirus: Deciding who gets the ventilator

Three otherwise healthy patients go to the emergency department with severe acute respiratory failure. Only one ventilator, required to sustain life until the worst of the coronavirus infection has passed, is available. Who gets the vent? That’s what “A Framework for Rationing Ventilators and Critical Care Beds During the COVID-19 Pandemic,” a Viewpoint just published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), addresses. Douglas White, MD, MAS, Endowed Chair for Ethics in Critical Care Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and Bernie Lo, MD, from the University of California, San Francisco, wrote the Viewpoint, which links to a full policy document that’s been in the works since 2009. It is being implemented in several states and can easily be adapted to any hospital, Dr. White said in a Webinar on March 27. The impending shortage of ventilators during a surge of viral infections evokes the scene in William Styron’s 1979 novel (and 1982 film) Sophie’s Choice. Upon arriving at Auschwitz, Meryl Streep’s character, a young Polish Catholic mother, must choose which of her two children would be gassed immediately and which would be allowed to live. The decision haunts her for the rest of her days. Intensivists – physicians trained in critical care medicine – now face the dilemma of choosing who gets the ventilator. There’...
Source: blog.bioethics.net - Category: Medical Ethics Authors: Tags: Health Care Author: Lewis syndicated Source Type: blogs