The Regional Hospital XYZ is a major trauma centre with a large emergency department and intensive care unit (ICU). During the outbreak of a pandemic COVID-19 crisis, the ICU is filled to capacity with patients suffering
CS Professional · Ethics, Governance and Sustainability · PYQS · December 2021
The Regional Hospital XYZ is a major trauma centre with a large emergency department and intensive care unit (ICU). During the outbreak of a pandemic COVID-19 crisis, the ICU is filled to capacity with patients suffering from Corona Virus. The emergency department calls the ICU seeking to admit Mr. X, who was brought to the emergency room with a severe condition but potentially reversible brain injury after a car accident. One alternative is to move one of the current ICU patients to a medical unit in order to make room for Mr. X. However, the ICU staff reports that all of their patients need ventilator support, and there are no other ventilated beds available in the hospital. Another alternative is to send Mr. X to another unit in the hospital. However, given Mr. X's injuries, it is clear that this would overtax the clinical capabilities of the health care staff, who are not trained in critical care and who are already struggling to care for other patients. The final alternative is to transfer Mr. X to another health care facility. However, the Corona pandemic has overwhelmed all hospitals in the region, and there are no available ICU beds anywhere else. There is one bed available in the ICU as one of the patient dies. Now an ICU nurse named Ms. Y is admitted with severe difficulty in breathing. It is determined that she has been infected with the Corona Virus, which she may have contracted while caring for patients in the hospital's ICU. She needs immediate ventilation support, which is only available in the ICU bed. What is the dilemma with the Hospital?
Answer & Explanation:
Dilemma is a situation that requires a choice between options that are or seem equally favourable or unfavorable or mutually exclusive. By definition, an ethical dilemma involves the need to choose from among two or more morally acceptable courses of action, when one choice prevents selecting the other; or, the need to choose between equally unacceptable alternatives. In this case study, the hospital management and doctors are in dilemma because there is only one bed with ventilator available in the hospital and there are two patients, Mr. X and Ms. Y. Saving the life of both the patients is important for the hospital management and staff as both the patients are critical and need a bed with ventilator immediately. Mr. X suffers from a serious car accident injury and Ms. Y is a victim of corona. Mr. X's condition is severe but with a potentially reversible brain injury. Ms. Y, a trained nurse in the hospital was seriously engaged in serving corona positive patients and there are chances that she has acquired this disease while serving the patients in the hospital. Her life is important for hospital and patients of the hospital. The hospital management and doctors both are in an ethical / moral dilemma as to whom to allocate the ICU bed. But the moral duty of doctors is to save the life of both of them.
Topics: Ethics
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