Your opinions please.

I've heard that story a few times Ron ...it happens a lot!  not good for anyone!

My opinion is ..we are not god/nature/ whatever you believe in, we cannot prevent the inevitable. And although i'm sometimes duty bound to perform these resuscitations, i don't always agree with it, i think when the time comes for the very elderly, or terminally ill thats it, we can not and should not interfere. I have to be careful here though...because although i've just said we are not god ..some people would take, not actively doing CPR as playing god!!!  deciding just who gets the chance and who doesn't, also ageist! who am I to decide just because someone is elderly, they don't deserve a fair go at it. Well its clearly not playing god, someone has to make that desision, humans have developed these procedures, so we have made this our choice, and we sometimes have to make it.

There is no better feeling than resuscitating a previously healthy 50ish yr old, getting an output back, and seeing them breathing on their own again!!!  then following it up and finding they have been discharged from hospital!! 

But on the reverse side ....getting a very elderly patient back, with loads of medical history, been unwell for ages, the rhythm we get back is always just a drug induced one (caused by the cardiac arrest drugs we use) these rhythms don't last long, so its all in vain!!  we get to hospital and 30mins later its all been called. All that for no reason!!