Category / Case Studies / End of Life Ethics / Resources
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The Case of Non-Beneficial Care
80-year male with multiple medical problems is nonresponsive to medical teams.
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The Case of John: Refusal to Eat in a Long-Term Care Facility
John is a strongly independent 92-year-old widower of many years, with no children. Is he done living?
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The Case of Mary Jo Hoffman: The Wanted, Unwanted Doctor
Mary Jo is a 49-year-old who disagrees with her doctor’s diagnosis.
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The Case of Melinda and Matt: Ethical Indicators of Futility in Critically Ill New Mother
Who is responsible for healthcare decisions of this 31-year-old African American woman? Should her advance directive be honored?
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The Case of Jehovah’s Witness: A Minor Requiring Blood Products
A sixteen-year-old male member of Jehovah’s Witnesses incurred serious injuries in an auto accident and requires surgery.
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The Case of Jennie M: To Tube Feed or Not
Jennie has an advance directive which does not address artificial nutrition. Who makes this decision now that Jennie can’t speak for herself?
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The Case of Jesse, Unrepresented and Homeless
A 60-year-old homeless man, “Jesse,” is found confused and in distress by a passerby who calls 911. Paramedics bring the man to the hospital. Jesse’s feet and legs are swollen and covered in ulcers and dead tissue—diagnosed as osteomyelitis, or infection of his legs.
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The Case of Joe
“Joe” is a 62-year-old building contractor who has been in an ICU for the past 10 weeks. He had gone to his community hospital for bypass surgery (CABG) and aortic valve repair (AVR), and things didn’t go well post-op. His sternal wound became infected with Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA).
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The Case of Sepsis in a Newborn
The “Clinical Moment” in Short Bowel Syndrome: What Can We Do, What Should We Do?
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The Case of Teresa: Patient Vulnerability from a System’s Failure to Protect
A framework of general strategies to help vulnerable persons should explore responses that will help individual patients, improve professional and organizational responses to vulnerable patients, and mitigate the negative effects of public policies that affect vulnerable persons.
