Every day, doctors around the globe fight for the lives of hundreds, thousands of patients. They do everything possible and impossible to defeat death, to pull the patient literally from the other world. It is no accident that in one Soviet song about people in white coats there are such words: “An eternal feat, you can do it!” But the doctors themselves, finding themselves terminally ill, are not ready to go the way of their wards. In the United States of America, you can increasingly see an unusual tattoo on the chest of a physician (medallion, pendant). So why do doctors wear "Do not reanimate" tattoos?
Colleagues, I pray you!
This is a warning to colleagues: at the moment when the label carrier is in critical condition, you don’t need to rush to help, headlong. No systems, injections, defibrillators, heart massage. As they say, let me die calmly. This applies not only to the moment “H”, but is a general principle of world perception. Doctors believe: it is better to spend their last days, weeks, months in the family, among relatives and friends, than in intensive care. This is their main desire.
They are too well aware of what is happening to allow all methods available to modern medicine to support life, when virtually nothing can be done. Someone who does not agree with this approach will say: you need to fight to the end. But this is a deliberate choice, not requiring "variations" on the topic: "Why do doctors wear tattoos with the message" Do not reanimate ""?
Artificial launch
Indirect cardiac massage. It is done when clinical death occurs. They try to start the “motor” by rhythmic pressure on the chest, in the place where it is relatively mobile. During manipulation, he is pressed against the spine, and then released. The movements are repeated exactly as many times as required to artificially maintain the movement of blood in the vessels, in the hope that the organ will begin to perform its function on its own.
One of the American doctors of medicine commented on the precedent like this: “Doctors categorically do not want to be subjected to indirect heart massage in the event of a clinical outcome. As well as chemotherapy courses. Moreover, they relate to their treatment without any initiative. No active action. This is why doctors wear "Do not reanimate" tattoos.
No worries. It's too much
It would seem that people who had once taken the Hippocratic oath (“Do no harm!”) Should first of all understand that they harm themselves by such an approach. After all, treatment rooms are closer to them than to anyone else. They know the treatment regimen, they can correctly apply them. But they prefer to leave without fuss. All this is because they are clearly aware that any serious treatment can not do without heavy losses.
As a result, they continue to confront death, if it is about the sick, but they do not oppose it at all. "Many knowledge - many sorrows"? They don’t think so. Competence allows you to take the situation calmly. Why panic, unnecessarily worry, explain to astonished onlookers why some doctors wear "Do not reanimate" tattoos. This is not their destiny.
An old woman with a scythe can be driven away
Cancer occupies a leading position in a dozen diseases leading to death. In recent years, he has been stepping confidently around the planet, striking the elderly, young and even children. There is evidence that in countries where the income level of the population is consistently high, the frequency of sad outcomes follows once cardiovascular diseases such as coronary heart disease and stroke. Misfortune can happen to everyone. This is why doctors wear "Do not reanimate" tattoos (do not pump out).
Nobody argues: it is sometimes possible to temporarily drive away the “old woman with a scythe”. Chemotherapy courses are aimed at just that. But doctors know about the side effects of a "massive drug attack" on the disease: hair falls out, patients experience indescribable fatigue, etc. There is a fear of a session that is suppressed medically. But most patients do not think to refuse treatment.
And only they ... Why do doctors wear "Do not reanimate" tattoos? A doctor from Southern California, whose reasoning we cited above, also told the fate of his orthopedic colleague named Charlie. He personally found a lump in his stomach. Diagnostic manipulations confirmed pancreatic cancer. The patient was given a chance from five to 15 percent, which against the background of intensive, including surgical, treatment, he can last five years.
But Charlie did differently. He left medical practice, refused treatment, and devoted the entire remaining period of his earthly life to his wife and children, and died while in his own home.
Doctors are more afraid of the cancer of the procedure for indirect heart massage. When it is carried out intensively (we are talking about life and death), then the patient’s ribs can’t stand it, they break, which leads to disability.
In war, as in war
Perhaps it’s good that the relatives of those whose lives are hanging by a thread and need to be urgently saved do not fully understand that the war for the resumption of heartbeat does not know pity: they either win it, or ... Those who underwent artificial heart massage often die anyway (or remain disabled groups 1-2). A California doctor remembered only one patient who left the hospital "for two." This man was completely healthy before his clinical death.
But relatives, clutching at a straw, are asked to do everything, only to save a loved one. They can be understood. And doctors will take action. They will not leave the patient a single step until they make a peculiar “flight into space” in the name of saving an elusive life. But they themselves will ask colleagues: "Better kill me, but do not bring it to this."
The boundaries of the reasonable
There is evidence that not only American doctors think so. Such speculative conclusions are typical for most medical workers who at least once found themselves on the verge of life and death and understand the intricacies of resuscitation. Russian surgeon Povarikhina explained why doctors wear "Do not reanimate" tattoos? There is no fear of treatment, but a fear that in the heat of battle the battle for life will be “replicated."
She calls the approach of refusing return attempts somewhat reasonable. But only in case of incurable diseases and deep senile age. At the same time, an intensive approach does not prolong life, but greatly reduces its quality. She, like an American colleague, believes: to reanimate a patient who is diagnosed with stage 4 oncology is to completely deviate from the boundaries of the rational. This is prohibited for gentle reasons.
The doctor says: if there is at least one chance out of a thousand, not a single patient will give up life. But doctors are special people. They also do not crave their death, but they are clearly aware of its inevitability. And prefer quiet care. We think that now the reader understands why many doctors wear "Do not reanimate" tattoos.