Accepting End of Life Care Realities - When the Choices are Limited

Sajid Iqbal

Abstract

As a nursing instructor, I was rounding with my students in the Intensive Care Unit [ICU] when my junior colleagues expressed discomfort about the management of a 25 years old man, admitted after head injury in a road traffic accident. The gentleman in question was being ventilated for the last ten days although declared brain dead. However, despite effective communication, family refused to give consent to disconnect the ventilator. They were not ready to accept the brain death, as the patient’s heart rhythm was visible on cardiac monitor. There was no evidence of patient’s own wishes about his end of life care.