I floated one more suggestion by Godkin. “Perhaps,” I mused, “this lady should get the letters DNR tattooed on her left breast — then no one could miss it at the critical moment.” Godkin responded that she’d heard the same suggestion from several nurses. She doubted, however, that such enigmatic ink would stop a zealous paramedic.Solution: we need a standard design for a DNR tattoo that is widely publicized and universally understood to mean DNR. Its location should be standardized so responders know where to look (like with dog microchips.) The presence of this tattoo should provide first responders and medical personal with all the ass-covering they need to not be held liable for not treating a person who has the tattoo.
The design should be as small and as simple as reasonably practicable, to minimize the time and discomfort of getting the actual tattoo, but distinctive enough to be easily recognizable and to be distinguished from any other tattoo a person might have.
There should also be a standardized and easily-recognizable way to cancel it, perhaps by tattooing a big X through it.
When I started writing this, my idea was that tattoo artists can only give people a DNR tattoo if they see DNR documentation. Then it occurred to me that getting a tattoo is such a serious act that maybe it should simply count as DNR documentation.
I'm also going back and forth about whether you should have to prove you're of sound mind to get a DNR tattoo. On one hand, a DNR is serious business and you should have to be of sound mind to do serious business. On the other hand, how much quality of life is possible if you're in a situation where you can end up in a tattoo parlour asking to get DNR tattooed on you when you don't actually want it? I don't know the answer to that question, so I'll leave it to the experts.
But, in general, the problem with DNR orders is the paperwork might not always be readily available at a time when a decision on whether to resuscitate needs to be made. So why not standardize a way to have the order literally on one's person?
2 comments:
This is a great idea. Plastic surgeons and others do medical tattoos. They're supposed to be safer, prevent the risk of infection, and reduce embarrassment or discomfort for people who aren't comfortable with the tattoo parlor. I would think this would also help with the standardization.
Here's a story about the use of medical tattoos. If you google "medical tattoo" or "plastic surgery medical tattoo" there's a lot of info.
Cool, I never knew that was a thing!
Post a Comment