University of Miami doctors say a tattoo recently complicated a life-or-death decision.
A 70-year-old man who was admitted to Miami's Jackson Memorial Hospital with septic shock had a tattoo on his chest that read, "Do Not Resuscitate," according to doctors writing in the New England Journal of Medicine. The tattoo also appeared to include the man's signature.
The man was inebriated and doctors weren't able to bring him to consciousness or find his next of kin.
After a debate over whether to go ahead with life-saving treatment, doctors went along with a recommendation by the hospital's ethics consultant to obey the tattoo and let the man die.
The decision was justified when social workers tracked down paperwork supporting the patient's do-not-resuscitate request.