That means the patient wouldn`t be able to cough, swallow or breathe on their own, whereas a patient in a
"Pulling the plug" would render the patient unable to breathe, and the heart would stop beating within minutes, he said. But if a patient is not brain dead and instead has suffered a catastrophic neurological brain injury, DiGeorgia said, he or she could breathe spontaneously for one or two days before dying.
Typically, a coma does not last more than a few days or couple of weeks. In some rare cases, a person might stay in a coma for several weeks, months or even years. Depending on what caused the person to go into a coma, some patients are able to return to their normal lives after leaving the hospital.
Yes, withholding and withdrawing life-sustaining treatment is legal in Australia so long as the law is complied with.
In the vernacular of the house officer, pulling the plug means discontinuing life support in a badly damaged patient whose survival is highly unlikely.
Some patients die within minutes, while others breathe on their own for several minutes to several hours. Some patients will live for many days. This can cause distress for families if they expected death to come quickly. The priority of the health care providers is to keep your loved one comfortable and not suffering.
In the United States, the withholding and withdrawal of life support is legally justified primarily by the principles of informed consent and informed refusal, both of which have strong roots in the common law.
Usually families and the medical team (doctors and nurses) make decisions together about life support. However, sometimes doctors make the final decision about life support. Sometimes families will decide. This depends on the type of decision, as well as on what families want.
Provided they service isn't refused on grounds that are unlawful under anti-discrimination legislation a private hospital is free to decide who it will accept as a patient. They can refuse treatment if you can't pay, but not on the grounds of gender, race etc.
Don't use double adapters or piggy back plugs (prohibited under the Electrical Safety Regulation) Use industrial quality extension leads where required (not white domestic leads)
Comatose patients do not seem to hear or respond. Speaking may not affect their clinical outcome; time spent with them takes time away from other, more "viable" patients. Comatose patients may, however, hear; many have normal brain-stem auditory evoked responses and normal physiologic responses to auditory stimuli.
Brain death is not the same as coma, because someone in a coma is unconscious but still alive. Brain death occurs when a critically ill patient dies sometime after being placed on life support. This situation can occur after, for example, a heart attack or stroke.
Comas may last from a few hours to years. Comas outwardly resemble a state of deep sleep, but are actually quite more complex.
This means they will not regain consciousness or be able to breathe without support. A person who is brain dead is legally confirmed as dead. They have no chance of recovery because their body is unable to survive without artificial life support.
If we pinch their hand, they will move it away. But these signs of consciousness are not always evident, nor do we see them in every patient. A patient who awakens from a coma may also develop a so-called locked-in syndrome, being completely conscious but paralyzed and unable to communicate, except through eye blinks.
Coma patients might feel pleasure and pain like the rest of us.
These are described in the Australian Charter of Healthcare Rights. The rights included in the Charter relates to access, safety, respect, communication, participation, privacy and comment.
Ryan's Rule is a three step process to support patients of any age, their families and carers, to raise concerns if a patient's health condition is getting worse or not improving as well as expected.
REACH is the NSW equivalent of Queensland`s Ryan Rule and has been implemented in about half of the state`s hospitals. In Victoria and Western Australia, patients can speak to a patient liaison officer at each hospital to raise their own concerns or those of their family members.
There is no rule about how long a person can stay on life support. People getting life support may continue to use it until they either recover or their condition worsens. In some cases, it's possible to recover after days or weeks of life support, and the person can stop the treatments.
If necessary, the patient remains on life support pending a second opinion. Hospitals are not legally obligated to keep brain-dead patients on life support. Most state laws follow similar protocols.
Someone on a ventilator may appear to be breathing, but cannot breathe on their own. While the heart usually stops within 72 hours, it could continue beating for “a week or so,” Varelas said.
When a treatment is clearly futile and it will no longer achieve its “clinical” objective and no longer offers a physiological benefit to the patient, then obviously, there should be no obligation to continue to provide the treatment.
POLICY: Palliative Ventilator Withdrawal (PVW) is the provision of comfort measures for a seriously ill patient for whom continuing mechanical ventilation has been determined to be clinically inappropriate or unwanted by patient.