Recently at critical care ward, a relative of a 78-year-old patient came to my colleague and expressed his concerns about patients deteriorating health. Till that time, they had performed CPRs 3 times on that patient, and then they were rushed to another code blue. After stabilizing the patient, the same relative again came to her and told that the patient while residing outside India had DNR (Do Not Resuscitate) status and he wished it was legal in India. My colleague genuinely thought the relative had a serious concern about the patient’s condition.
But she and her team could not do anything but to perform CPRs and procedures to stabilize the patient. I know, there is no legal bearing to DNR in India. This case got me thinking whether we should have DNR in India?
