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Chapter 8 - Access to an Infant’s Family

Lingering Effects of Not Talking with Parents

from Part II - The Most Vulnerable of Us

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 May 2025

By
D. Micah Hester
Edited by
Paul J. Ford  and
Denise M. Dudzinski
Paul J. Ford
Affiliation:
The Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Cleveland
Denise M. Dudzinski
Affiliation:
University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle
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Summary

In this chapter in Complex Ethics Consultations: Cases that Haunt Us, the author describes a 6-week-old with an anoxic brain injury and poor prognosis whose parents requested continued ventilation when comfort care was recommended. Eventually, parents wanted to bring the child home but declined a tracheostomy, leading to court intervention. Parents accepted a trach, but experienced conflicts with home nursing, which they eventually declined. Two weeks later the baby was admitted with sepsis. Like many other parents caring for medically complex children, they were overwhelmed. The author is haunted by the impact of his own insecurities on the ethics consultation, his decision not to meet with the family, and the worry that he did not do enough.

Keywords

hauntingclinical ethicsprofessional reflectionself-doubt

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Type
Chapter
Information
Complex Ethics Consultations
Cases that Haunt Us
 , pp. 65 - 69
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2025

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References

Munson, R. Intervention and Reflection: Basic Issues in Medical Ethics, 5th ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 1996; 114–15.Google Scholar
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Ross, LF. Children, Families, and Health Care Decision Making. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miller, R. Children, Ethics, & Modern Medicine. Bloomington, IL: Indiana University Press, 2003.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hester, DM. Community as Healing: Pragmatist Ethics in Medical Encounters. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2001.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
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Dewey, J. Logic: The Theory of Inquiry. New York: Henry Holt & Co., 1938.Google Scholar
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Fletcher, J. Ethics committees and due process. Law Med Health Care, 1992; 20(4): 291–3.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed

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