CPR can crack ribs and only succeeds longterm in restarting a heart 20% of the time -- [View all]

[pnwmom]

that is, the heart functions long enough for the person to be discharged from the hospital.

And in the elderly, the risk of fractured ribs and sternum is even higher than for younger people -- and the chance of extending life is much smaller.

If you were 87, would you want to spend your last moments in life getting your bones broken in the small chance that your heart would start up again?

If not, get a DNR, because if someone calls 911, in the absence of a DNR they are obligated to try.

http://newoldage.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/08/10/more-on-cpr-for-the-elderly/

I’ll confess I was startled to learn, after too many episodes of “ER,” how rarely cardiopulmonary resuscitation succeeds in restarting someone’s heart. The rate of long-term success is probably about 20 percent, said Dr. David John, former geriatrics chairman of the American College of Emergency Physicians. “When your heart stops, it’s really hard to get it back,” he said.

“Long-term success” has a particular definition here: It means that a patient, after cardiac arrest, survives long enough to be discharged from a hospital. Studies often don’t report what happens thereafter. But even that modest kind of success occurs less frequently in older people who receive CPR, declining slightly for those in their 70s, then more steeply for those in their 80s and 90s, several studies show. And like any other medical intervention, CPR involves its own risks.

This can all seem very abstract to a healthy middle-aged person with no history of heart problems. But as people age, and increasingly cope with multiple diseases and frailty, the issue grows more urgent and more complex. The blunt question: Should a frail, elderly person receive CPR?

SNIP

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(Read on for two doctor's opinions)