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Originally Posted by ngdawg
Another thought to this occurs to me that, when a paramedic assesses a situation and the patient is coherent, how much of the patient's wishes is he/she supposed to consider? If there's a DNR (and many times it can't be found when needed, as in the case of my great-aunt, who was put on life-support after a fall because no one could locate her DNR instructions), then I would presume that paramedics would stop life-saving or life-prolonging stratagies. But what if the patient says 'no drugs', even if those drugs helped save his/her life? Then we come to something like this, where he wanted to not be given them until they got hold of his wife.
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If a patient is coherent and it's judged that they're competent to made their own decisions regarding their medical care, they can opt out of any treatment(s) at any time. Also, a DNR doesn't stop life-saving measures until the heart stops (or other direction as stipulated in the Do Not Resuscitate order). Once the heart stops of its own accord, then there is no attempt to bring it back. People can also have a living will that further stipulates the level of care they wish to have when attended by EMS. This can say anything up to and including specific drugs/interventions they don't wish to be used on them.
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Another question-is it normal for EMT's to visit with their patient or family afterwards? When I was taken by paramedics to the hospital, they later stopped by to see how I was faring, which I thought was a nice gesture.
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Many times, the medic team will take most of their patients to one hospital, whatever is closest to them. While they're there, it's not uncommon for them to take a quick walk and "check up on" other patients they transported there earlier. I know on one shift, we kept going to this one guy we'd transported in the morning, to see his progress for the rest of the day- I think we saw him twice more and then after that, he'd been discharged. I think the family appreciated the attention to/interest in his progress.