Three Patients

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xix

   PDF

2. Introduction

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1

      PDF

   2. Overview

      • Jack K. Kilcullen

      Pages 3-6

   3. Medical Futility in American Health Care

      • David F. Kelly

      Pages 7-23

3. Multinational Perspective on Treatment of the Three Patients

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 25-25

      PDF

   2. Description of the Cases

      • David Crippen

      Pages 27-31

   3. South Africa

      • Richard Burrows

      Pages 33-37

   4. Australia

      • Malcolm Fisher

      Pages 39-41

   5. United Kingdom

      • Anna Batchelor

      Pages 43-47

   6. India

      • Farhad Kapadia

      Pages 49-54

   7. New Zealand

      • Stephen Streat

      Pages 55-60

   8. The Netherlands

      • Hans van der Spoel

      Pages 61-66

   9. Russia

      • Michael Karakozov

      Pages 67-72

   10. Hong Kong

       • Ian K. S. Tan

       Pages 73-75

   11. Israel

       • Aviel Roy-Shapira

       Pages 77-82

   12. Canada

       • Ted S. Rogovein

       Pages 83-88

   13. Urban United States

       • Don Chalfin

       Pages 89-94

4. Summaries of Medical Comments

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 95-95

      PDF

   2. Patient A

      1. Is Treatment Worthwhile?

         • Bruce Gipe

         Pages 99-109

      2. Globalization of Critical Care

         • John W. Hoyt

         Pages 111-116

This volume explores how the scarce resources of intensive care units should be distributed. Three hypothetical patients, each with a different chance of survival, desire intensive care. A multinational panel of experienced critical care physicians offers assessments of the patients' conditions and outlines approaches to treatment. These approaches are then examined by academic medical experts and a medical ethicist, as well as from a legal perspective. The result is a well-rounded and introspective look at care for critically ill patients at or near the end of life.

• Atmen
• care
• critical care
• intensive care
• multiple organ failure

"this book provides a very interesting and stimulating dialogue on the increasingly complex end-of-life issues that are so relevant to the practice of intensive care medicine."
(Anaesthesia and Intensive Care, October (2002)

• Departments of Emergency and Critical Care Medicine, St. Francis Medical Center, Pittsburgh, USA

  David Crippen

• Division of Critical Care Medicine, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Montefiore Medical Center, Bronx, USA

  Jack K. Kilcullen

• Health Care Ethics Center, Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, USA

  David F. Kelly

Policies and ethics