skills, is scheduled for surgery of her right eye. Upon entry to the hospital,
she and her son review the general admission documents and Mrs. Sparza signs
them all. Mrs. Sparza also completed and executed a durable power of attorney
for health care. Mrs. Sparza identified her daughter and son as her agents for
decision making in the event that she became incapacitated. Mrs. Sparza also
specified that she did not wish any heroic measures and that in the event she
went into a coma, she wanted the life support terminated.
After changing into a patient gown and having her vital
signs taken, Mrs. Sparza is taken into the pre-operative room where she is
placed on a gurney. After administration of pre-operative muscle relaxant medication,
she is rolled into the operating room. Upon entering the operating room, Mrs.
Sparza is greeted by Nurse Johnson who asks Mrs. Sparza to sign the surgical
consent form. The form is in English and identifies the procedure as surgery of
both eyes. Mrs. Sparza is told that she is scheduled for surgery of both eyes
and is asked to sign the consent.
When Mrs. Sparza objects and refuses, Dr. Pinnette enters in
his green scrubbs and talks with Mrs. Sparza with the aid of an interpreter.
After a minute of conversation, with tears in her eyes, Mrs. Sparza signs the
consent form and is placed under general anesthesia. At six a.m., on the next
day of her hospitalization, Mrs. Sparza suffers a heart attack and her kidneys
ceased function. She subsequently went into a coma. Her children were
immediately notified and arrived at the hospital at 8:30 a.m. When informed of
the doctor’s decision to place Mrs. Sparza on a dialysis machine, the son and
daughter declined consent and asked that life-support be terminated pursuant to
the patient’s directive.
Mrs. Sparza’s cardiologist, a world renown cardiac surgeon,
refused to give the nurses the order to terminate life-support. Dr. Lox looked
for every excuse to avoid the family. At the family’s request, Mrs. Sparza’s nurses
provided comfort care until 3:30 in the afternoon of the next day. The two day
ordeal was a long and emotionally traumatic experience for Mrs. Sparza’s
family, who received relief when Mrs. Sparza’s nurse injected a fatal dose of
morphine to ease and expedite her death.
Evaluate and discuss the legal implications of the actions
in the foregoing scenario in light of the module materials and your own
research. Please be thorough in responding in an organized paper to the
following:
What are the elements of informed consent?
Was Mrs. Sparza’s consent proper? Why/Why not?
What were Mrs. Sparza’s rights regarding end-of-life
decision making?
Discuss the nature of the act of injecting morphine. Was it
legal?
Limit your response to a maximum of four pages. Be sure to
properly and clearly cite your resources.
