TROUBLE ON THE FRONTLINES THE ETHICS OF CARDIOPULMONARY RESUSCITATION DURING COVID-19 By
Shayna Cohen Riley Hurr
Eight months after the World Health Organization (WHO) officially declared the COVID19 outbreak as a pandemic, the impact COVID-19 has had on the lives of physicians, patients, and their families has been immense and profoundly tragic. As of November 10th, there have been over 240,000 deaths from COVID19 in the United States alone, which comes along with another sobering statistic: 1,361 US healthcare providers (HCPs) caring for COVID-19 patients have died. With national PPE shortages and
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COVID-19 cases continuing to surge in many places, putting stress on critical care resources, the ability for frontline workers to protect themselves while adequately serving patients seems more and more difficult. Along with potentially exposing themselves and their families to an incredibly infectious virus, HCPs are also evidently struggling with seeing the harsh realities of the pandemic firsthand, and as a result some have experienced significant struggles with their own mental health. Broadly, the COVID-19 pandemic is forc-
ing HCPs and their institutions to radically redefine what it means to provide treatment in a time of crisis. Specifically, withholding cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) from COVID-19 patients has been up for discussion in some hospitals since CPR requires close proximity to a patient and can lead to more airborne transmission. For the hospitals considering policies like withholding CPR, there are a number of reasons why this could be advantageous. Primarily, withholding CPR from COVID-19 patients seems to be
