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When Death Isn't Dead: Implicit Social Rationing during Resuscitative Efforts.
- Source :
-
Sociological Inquiry . Winter99, Vol. 69 Issue 1, p51-75. 25p. - Publication Year :
- 1999
-
Abstract
- In this article the author addresses the relationship between social death and clinical-biological death during resuscitative efforts in cases of sudden death in Western societies. This paper is based on 112 observations of resuscitative efforts over a fourteen-month period in the emergency departments (EDs) of two Midwestern hospitals: one level-1 and one level-2 trauma center. I focused my observations on medical out-of-hospital resuscitative efforts. This research was approved by the institutional review board of the two hospitals and by the University of Illinois, Chicago, Illinois. I was paged with the other resuscitation team members whenever a resuscitative effort was needed in these emergency departments. I managed to attend half the resuscitative efforts occurring in the two EDs during the observation period. During resuscitative efforts, I tried to stand at the foot of the patient and take note of the interaction. Occasionally, I would help the staff lift a patient, retrieve drugs or blankets, and serve as a source of information about the precise sequence of drugs in the resuscitative efforts.
- Subjects :
- *HEALTH care rationing
*SUDDEN death
*RESUSCITATION
*HOSPITALS
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 00380245
- Volume :
- 69
- Issue :
- 1
- Database :
- Academic Search Index
- Journal :
- Sociological Inquiry
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 1971516
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-682X.1999.tb00489.x