There is no evidence that hospitals need to consider facilitywide do-not-resuscitate orders, according to the top doctor on the White House coronavirus task force.
Some hospitals across the country are considering issuing systemwide do-not-resuscitate orders if hospitals start reaching capacity, the Washington Post reported on Thursday. During a press conference, Deborah Birx said there was no evidence this extreme measure needs to be discussed with the public.
“Please, for the reassurance of people around the world, to wake up this morning and look at people talking about creating DNR situations, do-not-resuscitate situations, for patients, there is no situation in the United States right now that warrants that kind of discussion,” Birx said.
She continued, “You can be thinking about it in a hospital. Certainly, many hospitals talk about this on a daily basis, but to say that to the American people, to make the implication [that] when they need a hospital bed, it is not going to be there, or when they need that ventilator, it is not going to be there, we don’t have an evidence of that right now, and it’s our job, collectively, to assure the American people [and] to make sure that doesn’t happen.”
Birx noted that the supply of ventilators is stable for the moment and explained that New York City, which has the worst outbreak in the nation, has thousands of ventilators remaining.
