...Background | Since medical law and ethics are often interrelated, you need to have a clear understanding of both in order to protect yourselves, your employer, and the patient. Even though only a small number of malpractice cases actually end up in court, it is nevertheless important for you to understand how the law impacts physicians and employers. In this assignment, you will examine two scenarios surrounding healthcare personnel in their work environment. | Part 1: Legal Responsibility | 30 points | Adam Green is an orderly in the Midwest Nursing Home. His supervisor, Nora Malone, has asked him to supervise the dining room while 20 residents eat their evening meal. Bill Heckler is an 80-year-old resident who is very alert and ambulatory. He tells Adam that he doesn't like the meal that's being served, and he wants to leave the dining room and go back to his own room. Adam is quite busy since he has to watch the behavior of several patients who are confused. He's concerned that patients might choke on their food or otherwise harm themselves. Adam becomes impatient with Bill and tells him that he cannot leave the room until everyone is finished eating. Adam then locks the dining room door. Bill complains to the nursing home administrator that he was unlawfully detained. He then hires an attorney who brings forth a charge of false imprisonment. For each question below, provide an answer in 2 to 3 sentences, using proper grammer and spelling. | A. Was Adam's action...
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...1. Ethically, is brain death not as final as cardiac death? Why or why not? Brain death is final; there is no coming back from it, ever. Neurons die, and the brain ceases to function permanently. With cardiac death, we can sometimes use medication or electricity to resume heart functions. Asystole (no electrical activity in the heart) can sometimes be reversed if the underlying cause of the problem can be treated (such as severe electrolyte abnormalities, or severe hypothermia). 2. How does the Prudent Person Rule apply in this case? Yes the Prudent Person Rule does apply in this case. It applies because the young girl came in for a simple routine surgery and was fine. Then shortly after the routine surgery she started to bleed profusely then went into cardiac arrest and was determined to be brain dead afterwards. 3. In your opinion, could this tragedy have been prevented? If so, how? In my opinion there was something wrong with this young girl to where she needed surgery. But even though the outcome is very sad, there is no real way for me to say yes or no if this tragedy could have been prevented because there so many missing pieces. I am not given any information on what happened during the pre-op and post-op and if there were any measures that could have been done to prevent this tragedy. In any surgery the patient and family should be completely informed of the risk of surgery during and after surgery and informed to the ramifications of a situation before making...
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...interesting case of Terri Schindler Schiavo. Doctors diagnosed her with hypoxic encephalopathy, a neurological disease due to the lack of oxygen reaching the brain, and declared her as being in a persistent vegetative state, an ongoing state of severely impaired consciousness in which the patient is incapable of voluntary motion. Terrisfight.org explains that though Terri was able to breathe on her own, a feeding tube was necessary for proper nourishment and hydration. This feeding tube kept her alive in a permanent vegetative state for over fifteen years, and when it was finally removed under the order of Circuit Court Judge, George W. Greer of the Pinellas-Pasco's Sixth Judicial Court, she died a natural death in thirteen days. But why did it take fifteen years for the tube to be removed? Is that really what she wanted? Hopefully, no one in this room will ever have to face the decision of whether it is the right time to let a family member go, but it is not a stretch to think that one day, one of us may. My goal is that by the end of this speech, you will all have an understanding of the controversy that surrounds passive euthanasia, and hopefully will understand my belief in its ethicalness. Transition: Euthanasia is defined by the Merriam-Webster Dictionary as "the act or practice of killing or permitting the death of hopelessly sick or injured individuals (as persons or domestic animals) in a relatively painless way for reasons of...
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...Brain death vs. Cardiac death Hannah Hastings March 11, 2014 ME1415X Medical Law & Ethics and Records Management Stacy Smith Ultimate Medical Academy Online Brain death is not as final as cardiac death; what “brain dead” means is a person whose brain no longer works is brain dead. The term is used so frequently and in so many different contexts that we should not be surprised that two thirds of people incorrectly believe that someone who is brain dead is not legally dead, and more than half believe that a comatose patient is brain dead Brain death is the irreversible end of brain activity (including involuntary activity necessary to sustain life) due to total necrosis of the cerebral neurons following loss of brain oxygenation. It should not be confused with a persistent vegetative state. Brain death is used as an indicator of legal death in many jurisdictions, but it is defined inconsistently. Various parts of the brain may keep living when others die, and the term "brain death" has been used to refer to various combinations. For example, although a major medical dictionary says that "brain death" is synonymous with "cerebral death" (death of the cerebrum), the US National Library of Medicine Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) system defines brain death as including the brainstem. The distinctions can be important because, for example, in someone with a dead cerebrum but a living brainstem, the heartbeat and ventilation can continue unaided, whereas in whole-brain...
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...Canned dog food and spaghetti would probably be a disgusting dinner dont u think. This is probably the most weirdest thing you've ever heard. How about an untrained man wrestling an alligator. That would not go very well. These are crazy things people do in life. Just like Jonas and the expierences of changes he goes through in his society. At the beginning of the story the protagonist is nervous, but happy, because weird, awkward things started to happen. One thing about jonas is that he can't see color. Jonas has no experiences on knowing ways of doing things. He also doesn't know what feelings and memories are. The world he lives in is pretty weird because if they do something bad they only get a second chance and after that there's no third chance. Jonas meets this Elderly man that goes by The Giver. The Giver thinks Jonas is trustworthy so he gives jonas his first memory. The memory that Jonas received from The Giver is the one with a red sled which taught him what the color red looked like as well as the feeling of snow and strong winds. The Giver showed Jonas how to feel and what a feeling feels like . Jonas learns things from the giver as they go. Jonas was surprised,and excited to see color and how a real world look for the first time. Jonas knows what feelings feel like and he receives more memories showing him new things but also showing him color . But once he starts to gain feelings awkward things started happening. Jonas has pills that he takes but he was told...
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... 2015 A Young Girl’s Case, 2 A Young Girl’s Case A young girl went into surgery to remove her tonsils, adenoids, and extra sinus tissue. She went through the surgery just fine. Family members say she was alert and talking just fine. Shortly after surgery, the girl began bleeding profusely, went into cardiac arrest, and is now brain dead. 1. There was a similar incidence that occurred sometime ago. According to the NBC news report, there was a young girl, same scenario as this assignment, which had a surgery due to a tonsillectomy. She died the same way as this girl in the assignment did. According to an author on the NBC news report, ARTHUR CAPLAN, PH.D, they said, “Brain dead is dead. It is as reliable a way to determine death as declaring that a person’s heart has forever stopped beating. In fact, due to the strict tests and procedures that have to be followed to determine brain death, it is probably even more error-free than pronouncing someone dead due to cardiac failure”. 2. The prudent person rule applies to this case because the doctors were arguing about the debate whether to keep her on the ventilator. The doctors said she was already brain dead. The patient’s family members should’ve looked into this, it could’ve helped her case. 3. Yes, I believe that this tragedy could have been prevented. Reason being, the doctors could have checked her past medical history, maybe she had other issues that the doctor could have seen and caught the mistake prior to surgery. In my...
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...unconsciousness. There are many causes for comas. These can include traumatic brain injury, swelling, bleeding, stroke, lack of oxygen, diabetes, infection, and toxic exposure. The most common symptom for a coma is trauma. This could be either a closed or open head injury which usually causes the brain stem to be damaged (“Traumatic”). People who are in a coma are unconscious and they cannot be woken up by touch...
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...Introduction Defining brain death has continued to be a highly controversial phenomenon in our society today. In fact, it was recently described as being “at once well settled and persistently unresolved” (Truog 273). Traditionally death involves the “permanent stopping of the heart and cessation of breathing” (Fins and Laureys 1). However, with the advent of the artificial ventilator invented by Bjorn Ibsen from Denmark, a patient’s breathing and heartbeat could be continued, even in the absence of brain function (Fins and Laureys 1). Once physicians diagnose a patient as brain dead, the next step is often the procedure of organ transplantation. There is a multiplicity of views on brain death and subsequent organ transplantation, with each culture’s beliefs shaping its own medical practices; these differing stances often lead to ethical debates. Background Brain death was first described in the 1950s by two French physicians, Mollart and Goulon, who termed it as “coma depasse,” a state beyond coma and differentiated it from “coma prolonged,” a continual vegetative state (Ganapathi 10). The Harvard Ad Hoc Committee later reported two definitions of death: the “traditional” cardio-pulmonary death and “brain death” (Lock 138). In 1981, the Report of the Medical Consultants on the Diagnosis of Death to the US President's Commission reevaluated death, advocating that the diagnosis of brain death should not be distinguished from the death of “the organism as a whole” (Death, dying and donation...
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...Brain death is final there is really no way of living after being brain dead, besides being on live support as a vegetable. Brain dead is where your neurons die that make your brain function properly. Brain death is an irreversible and total loss of all brain functions that are needed to be alive. Brain death does mean there is no coming back from it, but some parts of the brain might stay alive for a while well other parts of the brain die almost instantly. Cardiac death is when your heart just stops pumping blood throughout the whole body. Cardiac death happens when something slows/ stops the flow of blood through the heart, causing bad damage to the heart muscles and body. Cardiac death can be reversible if treated properly within minutes after cardiac death happens, unlike brain death were there is no way medically to reverse what happen. Yes, the prudent person rule can be applied to the case for both the family members and the doctors. The family members assuming they are her parents knew the diagnosis, risk of the procedure, benefits of the procedure, alternative treatments, prognosis if no treatment is given, acceptable standard care is followed and the cost of the health care treatments. The doctors gave the family members all the information and followed the prudent person rule. The doctor can’t refuse to put the patient on a ventilator by the family’s request. In my opinion I think that something had have gone wrong in surgery to have the patient to bleed uncontrollable...
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...grueling task of ethically ensure their duty to do no harm while also trying to respect the patients and loved ones wishes. When it comes to traumatic unforeseen brain injuries it can be hard to let go. One day the person was perfectly normal, then instantly you are faced with deciding how they will ultimately spend their last living moments. You must consider the how the person’s life was before the injury as well as the quality of life they would have if treatment was continued. A patient’s death dictates a cease of treatment and allows those who have made their wishes known can begin the process for donating organs for transplantation to help save the life of others. A determination between life and death is essential due to the physician’s inability to waste limited medical resources or to potentially violating medical ethics by inflicting treatment after the patient is considered medically dead. With a precise diagnosis, families may be better able to cope with the passing of their loved one and can begin the mourning process. The National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws approved the Uniform Determination of Death Act in 1981(Wijdicks, 2010). This law outlined brain death as an irreversible cessation of circulatory and respiratory functions or irreversible cessation of all functions of the entire brain,...
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...September 2016 DEATH DEFINED AS PUBLIC POLICY RECONSTRUCTION James L. Bernat argues that the whole-brain criterion of death, opposed to the higher-brain and the cardiopulmonary criteria of death, are optimum public policy (130). In order to argue this, Bernat outlines the relevant steps that help form his argument. First, “death” is a common word that one uses when talking about the ending of a human’s life; it has been made ambiguous by technological advances. Second, death is fundamentally a biological phenomenon, and not fundamentally a social contrivance. Third, defining human death is simplified by restricting one’s purview to the death of higher vertebrate species. Fourth, death...
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...The adolescent brain is partly to blame for the deaths of Romeo and Juliet because having adolescent brains, they were more prone to making dangerous decisions. In her speech, Sarah-Jayne Blakemore says, “We know that adolescents have a tendency to take risks. They do. They take more risks than children or adults and they are particularly prone to taking risks when they’re with friends. There’s an important drive to become independent from one’s parents and to impress one’s friends in adolescence” (Document A). As described in the quote, the intense and often times irrational drive in Romeo and Juliet’s juvenile brains to take risks and to prove maturity inevitably led to their untimely passing. Additionally, Blakemore later says, “So what’s...
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...Andres Franco September 27th, 2010 Research Essay Can concussions affect brain function? The question whether concussions can affect brain function has been asked for years. Only recently medical researchers and scientists have found the answers to why concussions can affect the brain severely. Not only have they examined pro sport stars that have died due to concussions but also serial killers who have died or who are still in prison. Many pro football players suffer from concussions the most, since they do play head-on; the ones who have died from other natural deaths were examined. Some serial killers have also agreed to have their brain looked at for irregular brain function, and in both players and killers, there were either undeveloped frontal lobes or damaged frontal lobes. This was the answer they’ve been looking for not only to keep players safe that play pro sports, but to maybe save people from being a victim of homicide. Pro wrestler Chris Benoit suffered brain damage from his years in the ring and getting hit by metal chairs, rails, stairs, and even baseball bats. Maybe that could help explain why he killed his wife, son and also himself. A doctor who studied Benoit’s brain found out that his frontal lobe was damaged. Chris Benoit was a family man and everyone who knew him apart from wrestling, knew that that was most important to him. When he wasn’t wrestling he was with his family. In the ring he wasn’t so nice and his opponents weren’t either so they hit...
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...forensics are also carried out in other fields, such as astronomy, archaeology, biology and geology to investigate ancient times. Forensic Science is used to Identify Criminals Rape, murder, theft, and other crimes almost always leave a devastating mark on the victim. . In modern forensic science, the crime laboratories include photography section, Evidence storage section, identification section, chemistry section, General examination section, Fire arms section, instrument section and crime scene search section. 2)Origins of forensic science: In 16th-century Europe, medical practitioners in army and university settings began to gather information on the cause and manner of death. Ambroise Paré, a French army surgeon, systematically studied the effects of violent death on internal organs.[9][10] Two Italian surgeons, Fortunato Fidelis and Paolo Zacchia, laid the foundation of modern pathology by studying changes that occurred in the structure of the body as the result of disease.[11]. In Warwick in 1816, a farm labourer was tried and convicted of the murder of a young maidservant. She had been drowned in a shallow pool and bore the marks of violent assault. The police found footprints and an impression from corduroy cloth with a sewn patch in...
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...Bioethics “How Does Science & Technology Transform The Meaning of Death?” by Willard Gaylin discusses the distinction between life and death, more specifically, the distinction between the converging lines of the non-living and living. Throughout the article Gaylin raises several arguments that supports his claim of this convergence between who and what we consider dead traditionally, versus the ability to detect life even after the absence of personhood through our innovations in technology. He supports this claim by stating that “New urgencies for recognition of the problem arise from two conditions: the continuing march of technology, making the sustaining of vital processes possible for longer periods of time; and the increasing use of parts of the newly dead to sustain life for the truly living (Gaylin, Willard. How Does Science & Technology Transform the Meaning of Death, Pp. 163).” As the article continues, Gaylin’s focus shifts towards justifying the farming or banking of the recently deceased as a means of bettering the lives of the living and future generations. However, before he begins on justifying the storage of the incapacitated, he spends a brief moment on how to make the distinction between what we should consider to be living and what is not. Gaylin believes that over generations we have innovated new ways in determining the absences of life. An example of this is made within the article to show the human capacity of innovation in this field when...
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