Cliff Reid gave this inspiring lecture at SMACCgold. He was tasked to talk on when we should stop a resuscitation, but instead he speaks about when we shouldn't stop.
Scott Weingart
An ED Intensivist from NY.
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Oh my God Cliff!!!! very inspiring talk….I think its OK to look like a fool and carry on CPR when every one in the room has given up….
To me the take away home message of Cliff’s talk is that… Life is precious, something that we tend to forget about in our daily practice as resuscitationist…. Cliff your 25 min might as well now save more lifes that any guidelines.. thank you
I was at this presentation by Cliff and there was no doubting the depth of his feeling and sincerity. It did however, highlight the difficulty all of us have as doctors in navigating anecdotal experiences, evidence based medicine, budgetary constraints and of course, our humanity.
If I remember correctly (I haven’t listened again to this broadcast) the examples that Cliff cited were more about questionable medicine rather than pulling out of resuscitation too early – the saying, ‘you’re only dead when you’re warm dead’ might have applied to one of his case histories.
I suspect there will never be a clear end point in these difficult cases, but regardless of our desire to save every precious life, this too has to be balanced against the lifelong misery confronting patients, families and friends when our heroics leave them with someone requiring 24 hour care.