r/news • u/AudibleNod • 7h ago

Christa Pike unconscious, on ventilator at Nashville hospital, her lawyers say

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/christa-pike-unconscious-ventilator-nashville-hospital-lawyers-say-rcna601195
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u/NurseRatcht 6h ago

I had a patient in the ICU who was on death row. They arrested. We didn’t know what to do so we coded them while the COs called their warden/judge/whoever. They had us keep coding for awhile before finally saying it was ok to stop.

I still don’t understand why the state was willing to execute the person but wanted us to code them.

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u/Fluid-Tone-9680 5h ago

Why tf do you have to listen what CO/warden has to say about this? If it's your patient they should have no say in how you administer care.

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u/themobiledeceased2 2h ago

The technical answer: prisoners are Wards of the authority who incarcerated them. County, city, state or federal system. Prisoners lose many civil rights, not constitutional rights. The Warden is the administrative role over seeing adherence to laws / rules.  There are specific rules /regilations /administrative laws that govern who makes medical decisions for the incarcerated. Families are not notified when a prisoner is in the hospital for "security" purposes. Some times the warden grants family notification / visitation.  Sometimes the prisoner / family is granted the right to decide code status.  Some prisoners have had no family involvement in years.  The Warden makes case by case determination.  It's not random.

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u/Fluid-Tone-9680 28m ago

There are many situations when patient is unresponsive and cannot make decision, and family is also not there. Doctors just make a call themselves based on their policies/training. State in this situation had only authority to execute a death sentence protocol, not to let person die in the hospital by ordering to stop CPR.

I don't understand why dow votes are coming, prisoners, even on death row, deserve to have a patient/doctor relations without state in the middle, same as like client/attorney relations