What Is a Do Not Resuscitate (DNR) Order, and How Does It Work?
A Do Not Resuscitate Order is a legally binding physician’s order for a senior patient, which is signed by the treating doctor, that no steps will be taken to restart a person’s heart when it stops or to get a person breathing again if the patient stops breathing. A DNR order is normally a result of a person’s healthcare directive, which says that he or she does not want measures to be taken to keep the person alive. The decision to not resuscitate a person must be made by the individual, if competent to do so, or by the person’s agent for healthcare, on a “living will’” or healthcare directive, if the person is not competent to do so. The patient or agent must ask for such an order. The signed DNR order is placed in the patient’s hospital chart. The family of the patient who does not want to be resuscitated often must remind the doctors and staff in a hospital about the order, because the first thing doctors and nurses want to do is to save someone’s life if their patient does stop br
When someone nears the end of life — from either a specific terminal illness or overall decline — there may be some difficult decisions to make regarding medical interventions. One of these decisions is whether the person wants to be revived, through the administering of CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation), if she stops breathing or her heart stops beating. If she doesn’t want to be resuscitated, there are steps you can take to help her formalize that wish in a legally recognized medical order, called a Do Not Resuscitate (DNR) order, and to ensure that it’s honored.
