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Organ Donation After Acute Brain Death: Addressing Limitations of Time and Resources in the Emergency Department

It is not unusual for emergency physicians to quickly identify whether a patient would have wanted to be resuscitated or intubated in a cardiac arrest situation, but patients’ other preferences for end-of-life care or organ donation are less commonly ascertained in the emergency department. Typicall...

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Autores principales: Robey, Thomas E., Marcolini, Evadne G.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: YJBM 2013
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3767218/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24058308
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author Robey, Thomas E.
Marcolini, Evadne G.
author_facet Robey, Thomas E.
Marcolini, Evadne G.
author_sort Robey, Thomas E.
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description It is not unusual for emergency physicians to quickly identify whether a patient would have wanted to be resuscitated or intubated in a cardiac arrest situation, but patients’ other preferences for end-of-life care or organ donation are less commonly ascertained in the emergency department. Typically, the decision process regarding such goals at end of life may be “deferred” to the intensive care unit. We present a case illustrative of the complexity of discussing organ donation in the emergency department and suggest that patients who die in the emergency department should be afforded the respect and consideration provided in other parts of the hospital, including facilitation of organ transplantation. As circulatory determination of death becomes a more common antecedent to organ transplantation, specific questions may arise in the emergency department setting. When in the emergency department, how should organ donation be addressed and by whom? Should temporary organ preservation be initiated in the setting of uncertainty regarding a patient’s wishes? To better facilitate discussions about organ donation when they arise in emergency settings, we propose increased coordination between organ procurement organizations and emergency physicians to improve awareness of organ transplantation.
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spelling pubmed-37672182013-09-20 Organ Donation After Acute Brain Death: Addressing Limitations of Time and Resources in the Emergency Department Robey, Thomas E. Marcolini, Evadne G. Yale J Biol Med Focus: Research and Clinical Ethics It is not unusual for emergency physicians to quickly identify whether a patient would have wanted to be resuscitated or intubated in a cardiac arrest situation, but patients’ other preferences for end-of-life care or organ donation are less commonly ascertained in the emergency department. Typically, the decision process regarding such goals at end of life may be “deferred” to the intensive care unit. We present a case illustrative of the complexity of discussing organ donation in the emergency department and suggest that patients who die in the emergency department should be afforded the respect and consideration provided in other parts of the hospital, including facilitation of organ transplantation. As circulatory determination of death becomes a more common antecedent to organ transplantation, specific questions may arise in the emergency department setting. When in the emergency department, how should organ donation be addressed and by whom? Should temporary organ preservation be initiated in the setting of uncertainty regarding a patient’s wishes? To better facilitate discussions about organ donation when they arise in emergency settings, we propose increased coordination between organ procurement organizations and emergency physicians to improve awareness of organ transplantation. YJBM 2013-09-20 /pmc/articles/PMC3767218/ /pubmed/24058308 Text en Copyright ©2013, Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons CC BY-NC license, which permits use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. You may not use the material for commercial purposes.
spellingShingle Focus: Research and Clinical Ethics
Robey, Thomas E.
Marcolini, Evadne G.
Organ Donation After Acute Brain Death: Addressing Limitations of Time and Resources in the Emergency Department
title Organ Donation After Acute Brain Death: Addressing Limitations of Time and Resources in the Emergency Department
title_full Organ Donation After Acute Brain Death: Addressing Limitations of Time and Resources in the Emergency Department
title_fullStr Organ Donation After Acute Brain Death: Addressing Limitations of Time and Resources in the Emergency Department
title_full_unstemmed Organ Donation After Acute Brain Death: Addressing Limitations of Time and Resources in the Emergency Department
title_short Organ Donation After Acute Brain Death: Addressing Limitations of Time and Resources in the Emergency Department
title_sort organ donation after acute brain death: addressing limitations of time and resources in the emergency department
topic Focus: Research and Clinical Ethics
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3767218/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24058308
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