A time to die

Mackay, Michael J

doi:10.5694/j.1326-5377.2004.tb06515.x

Topics

Cardiovascular diseases

Emergency medicine

Palliative care

Is there something wrong with the way CPR is presently practised?

“That doctor — he should be sacked!” An elderly gentleman was talking about me, and he was doing it on the local television news! My crime was to make the observation in a letter to the MJA that “. . . regular involvement in cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) makes me wish the technique had never been introduced.”1 I had waved a red rag in front of bulls. To disparage CPR creates fury in those who, professionally or otherwise, see it as the reason for their existence. My wife had warned me that I would be painted as the bad guy, and, when this happened, my daughter asked cheerfully, “Is Daddy going to be like Pauline Hanson?”.

Emergency Department, Mackay Base Hospital, Mackay, QLD.

Correspondence:

Competing interests:

None identified.

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