As a physician with a special interest in medical ethics, I found this piece absolutely excellent. It is well worth a read. In this recent New Yorker article entitled The Hidden Harms of CPR, Dr. Sunita Puri explore the cultural expectations around death and CPR from her perspective as a palliative care physician.
Conversations about death are difficult. None of us wants to face our mortality or that of our loved ones. Not to be too somber, but it is an inescapable fact that everyone of us will die.
Opening up these conversations between physicians and patients is important. These conversations are best had among families before the time is needed. And we should be more comfortable as a society to allow natural death without the drama portrayed and glorified on medical TV shows.
The title, however, is somewhat misleading. The danger of catchy titles in the age of quick shares and clickbait is that the full articles are often read through or reflected upon. And this article deservers the reader’s full attention. My criticisms of this piece would be, beyond the sensational headline, she skates too quickly over one of the important benefits of CPR in the community. Not all CPR situations are equal. She does use the recent example Damar Hamlin to point out that CPR can be life saving and have good outcomes for patients who are young, fit and have events such as near drowing, choking, or sports injuries such as a “commotio cordis” [an arrhythmia caused by a blow to the chest, usually in male athletes under age 18] .
It is true that not all doctors are good at these conversations. Many are though. And if we start normalising these conversations around end of life, they will become easier for patients, families, and physicians.
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