MUM'S CHANCES

Jean* stared past us into the hereafter, barely moving except to gasp. Pale and emaciated, her breathing noisy, shallow, and fast, she clung to life by a thinning thread. The receiving casualty officer in A&E had given the 90 year old an intravenous line, started antibiotics, and referred to the on-call medics. The chest X-ray confirmed pneumonia and he had sent appropriate initial blood tests. He had also taken the step of filling out a ‘Do not attempt resuscitation form’, on the basis of ‘unlikely to succeed’, and moved her from the resuscitation room to an emergency department cubicle. Her son and daughter-in-law arrived as I attended. She lived in a nursing home, was normally bed-bound and completely dependent as well as ‘severely’ demented — no longer able to communicate beyond ‘Yes’, ‘No’, and ‘Dada’. Two weeks ago she had become agitated and was treated …