Pediatric Ventilation in a Disaster: Clinical and Ethical Decision Making

• 2012

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• Amir Ytzhak; Ram Sagi; Tarif Bader; Amit Assa; Alon Farfel; Ofer Merin
PMID: 22020234DOI: https://doi.org/10.1097/ccm.0b013e318232e222

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About

The article discusses the ethical challenges faced by caregivers in allocating limited medical resources, particularly ventilators, during mass disaster situations. Using case scenarios from the Haiti earthquake of 2010, the article highlights the importance of balancing ethical principles with the goal of providing comfort and dignity to patients. It presents a decision-support tool for ventilator allocation based on factors such as illness severity and prognosis. The conclusion emphasizes the need for an individualized approach to decision-making, considering both patient condition and resource availability to improve patient survival rates and effectively allocate scarce resources.

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Tags

Focus Area: Everyday Emergency

Audiences: EMS Clinicians; Nurses; Physicians

Emergency Management Stage: Response

Collection: Disaster Research Literature Review

Keywords: Abdomen, Acute; Asphyxia Neonatorum; Critical Illness; Decision Making; Disaster Planning; Earthquakes; Ethics, Medical; Haiti; Hospitals, Packaged; Intensive Care Units, Pediatric; Israel; Myocarditis; Pneumonia; Prognosis; Respiration, Artificial; Respiratory Distress Syndrome, Newborn; Respiratory Insufficiency; Retrospective Studies; Sampling Studies; Triage; Ventilators, Mechanical; Patient-Centered Care; Risk Assessment; Mass Casualty Incidents; Emergencies

Institutions: Israel Defense Forces: Medical Corps; Shamir Medical Center (Assaf Harofeh); Shaare Zedek Medical Center; The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

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