Dax’s Case is a biography based on the life of Donald Cowart illustrating his experiences in hospital as a severe burns victim and the viewpoints of his mother and the people who looked after him whilst undertaking care. Although I felt uncertain during the interview sessions, through the use of powerful visuals, the incident in which I felt the most unease was when the debridement process was shown. The scene opens with a close-up shot of Dax’s severely scarred face and his graft-covered eye socket. I felt anxious when watching this scene, as I have never witnessed something like this before, I felt fearful for what would come next. I could never imagine the pain Dax was going through. The camera slowly zooms out to show his third-degree burns, …show more content…
Throughout the years Dax spent in the burn ward, he continually refused treatment due to the intense pain he experienced and attempted suicide multiple times. Despite being declared competent by not only one, but two psychiatrists, the doctors ignored Dax’s requests and continued treatments until the skin grafts were treated and Dax regained the ability to move and walk. I previously learnt that all doctors should adopt a high standard of care by responding to their patients’ needs whilst simultaneously do what is best for their patients. However, as the documentary progressed, I felt as if I was alternating between taking Dax’s side and the doctor’s side. I felt conflicted and presented with moral dilemmas as Dax’s case challenges four principles of medical ethics – autonomy, non-maleficence, beneficence and …show more content…
Even though Dax was declared competent, the pain and emotional trauma he experienced from the accident and treatments may have clouded his judgment. His doctor, Robert White said he “would surely survive and could probably achieve some degree of normalcy in his life...yet he wanted to die”. He justified his decisions in Dax’s situation by saying that he was going try to help Dax accept the possibility of continuing his treatment to the point where he was physically ready to leave the hospital and independent enough to sufficiently move about and do things for himself, and then, if he wished to end his own life, he
For anyone who has ever worked in healthcare, or simply for someone who has watched a popular hit television show such as Grey’s Anatomy, General Hospital, House or ER know that there can be times when a doctor or health care provider is placed in extremely difficult situations. Often times, those situations are something that we watch from the sidelines and hope for the best in the patient’s interest. However, what happens when you place yourself inside the doctors, nurses, or any other of the medical provider’s shoes? What if you were placed in charge of a patient who had an ethically challenging situation? What you would you do then? That is precisely what Lisa Belkin accomplishes in her book “First Do No Harm”. Belkin takes the reader on
One of the most complex, ever-changing careers is the medical field. Physicians are not only faced with medical challenges, but also with ethical ones. In “Respect for Patients, Physicians, and the Truth”, by Susan Cullen and Margaret Klein, they discuss to great extent the complicated dilemmas physicians encounter during their practice. In their publication, Cullen and Klein discuss the pros and cons of disclosing the medical diagnosis (identifying the nature or cause of the disease), and the prognosis (the end result after treating the condition). But this subject is not easily regulated nor are there guidelines to follow. One example that clearly illustrates the ambiguity of the subject is when a patient is diagnosed with a serious, life-threatening
The judge has decided he’s too mentally unstable to stand trial. As soon as he’s recovered from his injuries he’ll go into some sort of mental facility for children’” (Wolf 344). Many characters also change, in some ways
Competency is the idea of being of sound mind, and being able to make rational decisions in a situation. In conjunction with competency is decision-making capacity. DMC is a continuum on which the patient’s ability to make a decision at a specific time is measured . A patient has DMC when they can understand all the information on their condition and the consequences of whatever choice they decide to make. In the case of those who are incompetent, physicians must use substituted judgement; treatment should be in line with what the patient would prefer if they were competent . At the time of his accident, I believe Dax was incompetent, and therefore unable to give informed consent about rejecting treatment for a plethora of reasons. The most obvious reason is that he was in immense amounts of pain. Pain has a fascinating ability to completely cloud the mind of all other rational thought. In the case of burn victims like Dax, they experience extreme amounts of pain for an extended period; as the process of recovery starts, daily bandage changes and baths aggravate the burns. Moreover, pain like that is treated with very strong medications, which have a myriad of side-effects ranging from mild sedation and confusion to hallucinations . If Dax was experiencing the pain and side-effects most burn patients do, then he was not able to think rationally, and therefore was incompetent. Because competency is a requirement for informed consent, his physicians were right to deny his request to stop
The Power of Mistakes Atul Gawande is not only our resident surgeon; he’s also a patient himself. He’s anxious before performing surgery, he dwells on mistakes, and he has emotions: he’s human and he understands us. However, he does not appear to share concerns with his patients initially. Gawande experiences a long, drawn-out development from a young medical student to the doctor he is today. This process of identifying with patients is evident in his anthology of essays, Complications: A Surgeon’s Notes on an Imperfect Science.
Healthcare ethics is defined as a system of moral principles that guide healthcare workers in making choices regarding medical care. At its core lies our attitudes regarding our personal rights and obligations we have to others. When an unprecedented situation comes into play, we rely on medical ethics to help determine an outcome that would be the best case scenario for all involved. In order to appropriately review this case study, we must first identify the key stakeholders, the ethical principles, policy implications at the federal, state, and local levels, financial implications, and a viable resolution for the situation.
Denise Dudzinski, PhD, MTS, Helene Starks, PhD, MPH, Nicole White, MD, MA (2009) ETHICS IN MEDICINE. Retrieved from: http://depts.washington.edu/bioethx/topics/pad.html
This freedom of choice, Gawande states, ultimately places a burden on either the doctor or the patient as the patient ultimately choose a course of treatment that is ultimately detrimental as in the case of Lazaroff, a patient with only a few weeks to live, but rather insist on “the day he would go back to work.” Despite the terrible risks and the limited potential benefits the neurosurgeon described, Lazaroff continued to opt to surgery and eventually died painfully as a result of surgery. Gawande suggests that Lazaroff “chose badly because his choice ran against his deepest interests,” which was to live despite his briefing remaining time, ultimately distorting his judgement into choosing a course of treatment that ultimately ended his life in a much more painful manner. Another case of patient decisions that Gawande discusses is Mr. Howe, who aggressively refused to be put on a breathing machine, neglecting the fact that “with antibiotics and some high-tech support...he would recover fully.” As Gawande and K awaited for Mrs. Howe’s decision to save her husband’s life, Mrs. Howe emotionally breaks down
Gruesome Playground Injuries traces the injuries that two characters face over a three-decade span. Their wounds keep them together as each scene starts with Doug entering the scene with a new injury. As the two first meet up in the nurse’s office in their elementary school Kayleen points out Doug’s “large gauze bandage wrapped and taped across his face” (Joseph 5). Through this action eight year old Kayleen starts a tradition whenever they meet by asking him “What happened to your face?” (Joseph 5). Upon all of Doug’s entries in each scene, Kayleen would notice his injuries and ask Doug “What did you do” (Jospeh 11) or “What happened to you?” (11) Doug constantly hurts himself throughout the scenes through acts of carelessness, riding off rooftops with bikes, blowing out his eye with fireworks, and knocking out his teeth with a hammer. After recklessly injuring himself, Doug turns to Kayleen hoping that she would be “able to mend [his] wounds.” (16) As Kayleen heals him through her “superpowers” (17), Doug continues to be open about how he needs her during...
Written Case Analysis IBM Salient Case Facts at a Glance: John Akers became the CEO of IBM in 1985. By this time, IBM had registered a drop in earnings for the first time. This trend continued, creating various other problems till John Akers was forced to resign in 1993. IBM was perceived as a ruthless giant with tremendous growth.
In this diverse society we are confronted everyday with so many ethical choices in provision of healthcare for individuals. It becomes very difficult to find a guideline that would include a border perspective which might include individual’s beliefs and preference across the world. Due to these controversies, the four principles in biomedical ethic which includes autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence and justice help us understand and explain which medical practices are ethical and acceptable. These principles are not only used to protect the rights of a patient but also the physician from being violated.
There are weaknesses in professional guidelines and rules because they are unable to provide the directives for moral reasoning and action is health care situations. Many people state that biomedical ethics provides a framework and emphasis on the person rather than the professional code and legal policy (Beauchamp and Childress, 2001). On the other hand they serve a purpose to provide some direction for professionals however codes of practise do not dismiss.
Ethics refers to the values and customs of a community at a particular point in time. At present, the term ethics is guided by the moral principles that guide our everyday actions. These moral principles guide the researcher into deciding what is ‘right’ or ‘wrong’. The foundation of medical ethics is governed by two philosophical frameworks that are deontology, and utilitarianism. However ultimately the ethics committees need to balance the risks, and benefits for the participants and the community associated with the particular research proposal. This balance is quite important as the well being of participants is at risk.7
Jecker, N. (1990). Integrating medical ethics with normative theory: Patient advocacy and social responsibility. 11(2), 125-139.
McGee, Glenn and Arthur L. Caplan. "Medical Ethics." Microsoft® Encarta® 98 Encyclopedia. © 1993-1997: Microsoft Corporation. CD-ROM.