Veteran aged 101 given 'Do Not Resuscitate' notice during pandemic… because he was hard of hearing

The widespread use of ‘Do Not Resuscitate’ notices during the pandemic was ‘chilling’ and older people felt like they had been ‘written off’, a charity boss has said.

The Scottish Covid Inquiry yesterday heard how people had repeatedly refused DNRs only to later discover one had been put in place.

It was claimed patients would find forms in hospital discharge notes with details of fictional conversations about DNRs.

Adam Stachura, of Age Scotland, revealed his charity had been swamped with calls from people worried they had been asked to agree to an order ‘out of the blue’.

Addressing the inquiry in Edinburgh, he told of a 101-year-old veteran who was issued with a DNR order by paramedics, while a woman in her late 50s got one due to hearing problems. 

He also said care homes issued them en masse with ‘no individual clinical assessment’.

Mr Stachura, who described the situation as a ‘scandal’, said he had raised the issue with the Scottish Government, which denied asking family doctors to impose DNRs.

The inquiry has previously heard powerful testimony about DNRs, including allegations of a patient’s signature being forged on one.

The charity chief said that in the early part of the pandemic the Age Scotland helpline was getting calls from people in good health who were suddenly contacted by their GP surgery asking them about a DNR.

Mr Stachura told the inquiry’s junior counsel Faryma Bahrami: ‘There might have been some introductory conversation about how are you feeling.

‘Then it moved on to have you considered a do not resuscitate decision. 

Out of the blue with no context. I think one of the most chilling parts was the scale of calls.’

He added: ‘I remember a woman in her late 50s who was a runner and her only health condition was hearing loss, but she was asked about it.

‘And there’s a range of conditions which you feel would not preclude you from having your heart restarted or your breathing restarted if they stopped. 

I remember being contacted by a woman about a 101-year-old veteran living in Glasgow who one day got a knock on the door from a paramedic and was handed a bit of paper and they’ve told him: “Just keep this by your bed”.

‘The woman had gone to visit and found the form and under the reason for it, it just said communications difficulties, because he had hearing loss.

‘There was no logic to this, so again really chilling examples of how this applied to people, in quite a cavalier way at times.’

Mr Stachura continued: I know examples of care homes where every single resident had a DNR decision made in their name as a blanket decision, but with no real individual clinical assessment.

‘There will also be occasions where people will find forms in discharge papers from hospital and the box will be ticked which said “conversation had with patient” and that never happened.’ The inquiry, before Lord Brailsford, continues.