[1] Basic life support techniques, such as performing CPR on a victim of cardiac arrest, can double or even triple that patient's chance of survival.
The purpose of basic life support (abbreviated BLS) is to save lives in a variety of different situations that require immediate attention.
These situations can include, but are not limited to, cardiac arrest, stroke, drowning, choking, accidental injuries, violence, severe allergic reactions, burns, hypothermia, birth complications, drug addiction, and alcohol intoxication.
The most common emergency that requires BLS is cerebral hypoxia, a shortage of oxygen to the brain due to heart or respiratory failure.
[4] When patients and their families are forced to make decisions concerning life support as a form of end-of-life or emergency treatment, ethical dilemmas often arise.
[8] Current ethical guidelines are vague since they center on moral issues of ending medical care but disregard discrepancies between those who understand possible treatments and how the patient's wishes are understood and integrated into the final decision.
[9] In a prospective study conducted by T J Predergast and J M Luce from 1987 to 1993, when physicians recommended withholding or withdrawing life support, 90% of the patients agreed to the suggestion and only 4% refused.
[10] In a survey conducted by Jean-Louis Vincent MD, PhD in 1999, it was found that of European intensivists working in the Intensive Care Unit, 93% of physicians occasionally withhold treatment from those they considered hopeless.
In contrast with related cases in which patients were comatose, Mrs. Sawatzky provided evidence that her husband was able to communicate and believed that he could recover, but the doctor disagreed.
Both philosophy and religion value life as a basic right for humans, rather than as the ability to contribute to society, and purposely encompasses all people.
[13] The Airedale NHS Trust v. Bland case was an English House of Lords decision for a 17-year-old comatose survivor of the Hillsborough disaster.
He had been artificially fed and hydrated via life support for about three years, but he had not shown any improvement while in his persistent vegetative state.
The Court decided that his "existence in a persistent vegetative state is not a benefit to the patient," but the statement did not cover the innate value of human life.
This part of the decision was influenced by the case Rodriguez (1993) in which a British Columbian woman with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis could not secure permission for assisted suicide.
Some examples include: These techniques are applied most commonly in the Emergency Department, Intensive Care Unit and Operating Rooms.
Another example includes the now-ubiquitous presence of automated external defibrillators in public venues which allow lay people to deliver life support in a prehospital environment.