“Do Not Resuscitate” Notices Given to Covid Patients with Learning Disabilities in UK

Health Impact News – by James Tapper, The Guardian

Excerpts:

People with learning disabilities have been given do not resuscitate orders during the second wave of the pandemic, in spite of widespread condemnation of the practice last year and an urgent investigation by the care watchdog.

Mencap said it had received reports in January from people with learning disabilities that they had been told they would not be resuscitated if they were taken ill with Covid-19.

The Care Quality Commission said in December that inappropriate Do Not Attempt Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (DNACPR) notices had caused potentially avoidable deaths last year.

DNACPRs are usually made for people who are too frail to benefit from CPR, but Mencap said some seem to have been issued for people simply because they had a learning disability. The CQC is due to publish a report on the practice within weeks.

Edel Harris, Mencap’s chief executive, said:

Throughout the pandemic many people with a learning disability have faced shocking discrimination and obstacles to accessing healthcare, with inappropriate Do Not Attempt Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (DNACPR) notices put on their files and cuts made to their social care support.

It’s unacceptable that within a group of people hit so hard by the pandemic, and who even before Covid died on average over 20 years younger than the general population, many are left feeling scared and wondering why they have been left out.

Read the full article at The Guardian.

Health Impact News

5 thoughts on ““Do Not Resuscitate” Notices Given to Covid Patients with Learning Disabilities in UK

  1. Vaccine issue aside… Man, I found this heart-wrenching. This is the cruel hand of eugenics attacking the precious and vulnerable. They might as well be stabbing angels. The people speaking in the video all appear to have Down Syndrome, and each has a crazy kind of undefinable beauty. The children I taught who had that syndrome really were angelic and radiated at such a level of goodness that it was humbling to be around them. That “do not resuscitate” notice is against all that is supposed to be ethical in the practice of medicine, but we know that sadly much of that practice has turned unethical. How easily they decide who lives and who dies. They have no freakin’ right.

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    1. ‘They might as well be stabbing angels.’
      I have a niece with DS. She is an amazing individual. I will relay one story (there are more) about her. She has a gift of what people would call extra sensory perception.
      One day out of the blue she said to her mom, “mom, Bobby (her older brother) in hospital” Of course knowing about Millie’s abilities my sister in law immediately called my nephew’s cell phone. Sure enough my nephew was in the ER along with the passenger in his car. He explained he was ok but they thought it best to get checked out. Apparently some jerk ran a red light and broadsided his car.

      1. What a beautiful story, Mary. I fully believe it. The world just doesn’t understand the gift of who those people are.

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    1. Thanks, Mary. That’s some cruel and terrible tyranny there. Few words are more egregious than “against their will.”

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