美国国家公共电台 NPR When A Tattoo Means Life Or Death. Literally

 

LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, HOST:

In the U.S., end-of-life decisions are fraught¹ and often frustrating². Many people struggle to communicate how they do or don't want to be treated as they die, which is why one man's simple and extreme solution has caught the attention of medical ethicists all over the country. Rebecca Hersher reports.

REBECCA HERSHER, BYLINE⁴: The standard way to tell people that you want to be allowed to die is to sign an official form saying, do not resuscitate⁵ me. But it doesn't guarantee that's what will happen. If you lose consciousness and end up in the ER, that form may not come with you, in which case, many doctors err⁶ on the side of not letting you die.

KENNETH GOODMAN: Look. You can always be dead later. Don't take a course that's irreversible.

HERSHER: Kenneth Goodman is the medical ethicist³ for the University of Miami Hospital. Goodman has seen a lot of dying people in his 30 years on the job. But even he was shocked last summer, when he got a call about a patient who had done something drastic with his end-of-life wishes. The patient had tattooed⁸ do not resuscitate across his chest. The word not was underlined. His signature was tattooed at the end.

GOODMAN: Here's one no one's ever seen before.

HERSHER: The man was 70 years old. He was unconscious when he arrived at the hospital - no ID, no one with him. The doctors asked Goodman, what should we do? It's not an official form. There's no way to know when he got this tattoo⁷ or how he feels about it now. On the other hand...

GOODMAN: He's gone to the trouble of getting a tattoo that says, please don't do this to me. And he's probably seen it pretty frequently since then. I suppose every time one's looking in the mirror, one would see this.

HERSHER: ...In the end, Goodman decided⁹ the tattoo was convincing.

GOODMAN: If we take a piece of paper at face value, where, in fact, someone might've changed their mind, we really should probably take this tattoo at face value, even though he might've changed his mind.

HERSHER: Goodman advised the doctors to take the tattoo seriously. The man got sicker and sicker overnight. They didn't do CPR. The man died. And it turned out the man had an out-of-hospital form on file with the Florida Department of Health that backed up his tattoo. So DNR tattoos¹⁰ have a couple of things going for them. They are hard for doctors to miss. And they're basically impossible to lose. But they're not a good solution because they're not reliable. To understand why, take another example - this one from 2012.

ALEX SMITH: A person who presented with a DNR tattoo at a local hospital here in San Francisco.

HERSHER: Alex Smith is a palliative medicine doctor at the University of California, San Francisco. This man was 59 years old, in the hospital for surgery. The letters DNR were tattooed in red below his heart. His doctors asked him, is that real?

SMITH: And in that case, the DNR tattoo in the person's chest was the result of a poorly conceived drinking game.

HERSHER: Specifically, a poker¹¹ bet with colleagues from - I kid you not - the hospital where he worked at the time. He said he actually wanted to be resuscitated¹². So, yeah, DNR tattoos - not reliable. Doctors and ethicists say what would really be helpful for them is an easy way to access official forms from everywhere. Ideally, EMTs and ER docs would both know instantly what care an unconscious person actually wants.

GOODMAN: Imagine an ordinary patient who has a preference never to be resuscitated and that were in her record. Why, then that ought to be something you could easily call up anywhere.

HERSHER: With the Internet, the cloud, it seems like something that should be possible. In fact, two states do have electronic registries for end-of-life forms. Two others are considering it. And since California's pilot registry began, doctors there say they're seeing fewer patients who choose to wear their preferences on their bodies - etched in bracelets¹³, mostly, not tattooed on their skin. Rebecca Hersher, NPR News.

1 fraught   

adj.充满…的，伴有(危险等)的；忧虑的

参考例句：

• The coming months will be fraught with fateful decisions.未来数月将充满重大的决定。
• There's no need to look so fraught!用不着那么愁眉苦脸的！

2 frustrating   

adj.产生挫折的，使人沮丧的，令人泄气的v.使不成功( frustrate的现在分词 )；挫败；使受挫折；令人沮丧

参考例句：

• It's frustrating to have to wait so long. 要等这么长时间，真令人懊恼。
• It was a demeaning and ultimately frustrating experience. 那是一次有失颜面并且令人沮丧至极的经历。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 ethicist   

n.伦理学家，道德学家

参考例句：

• They are used to resolving conflicting principles, says Dick Willems, a Dutch doctor and ethicist. 荷兰的医生，伦理学家DickWillems说，他们惯于解决相冲突的原则。
• They are used to resolving conflicting principles, says Dick Willems gold, a Dutch doctor and ethicist. 一个荷兰医生与道德家，认为他们习惯了解决有冲突的原则。

4 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

5 resuscitate   

v.使复活，使苏醒

参考例句：

• A policeman and then a paramedic tried to resuscitate her.一名警察和一位护理人员先后试图救活她。
• As instructed by Rinpoche,we got the doctors to resuscitate him.遵照仁波切的指示，我们找来医生帮他进行急救。

6 err   

vi.犯错误，出差错

参考例句：

• He did not err by a hair's breadth in his calculation.他的计算结果一丝不差。
• The arrows err not from their aim.箭无虚发。

7 tattoo   

n.纹身，(皮肤上的)刺花纹；vt.刺花纹于

参考例句：

• I've decided to get my tattoo removed.我已经决定去掉我身上的纹身。
• He had a tattoo on the back of his hand.他手背上刺有花纹。

8 tattooed   

v.刺青，文身( tattoo的过去式和过去分词 )；连续有节奏地敲击；作连续有节奏的敲击

参考例句：

• He had tattooed his wife's name on his upper arm. 他把妻子的名字刺在上臂上。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The sailor had a heart tattooed on his arm. 那水兵在手臂上刺上一颗心。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

9 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

10 tattoos   

n.文身( tattoo的名词复数 )；归营鼓；军队夜间表演操；连续有节奏的敲击声v.刺青，文身( tattoo的第三人称单数 )；连续有节奏地敲击；作连续有节奏的敲击

参考例句：

• His arms were covered in tattoos. 他的胳膊上刺满了花纹。
• His arms were covered in tattoos. 他的双臂刺满了纹身。 来自《简明英汉词典》

11 poker   

n.扑克；vt.烙制

参考例句：

• He was cleared out in the poker game.他打扑克牌，把钱都输光了。
• I'm old enough to play poker and do something with it.我打扑克是老手了，可以玩些花样。

12 resuscitated   

v.使（某人或某物）恢复知觉，苏醒( resuscitate的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The doctor resuscitated the man who was overcome by gas. 医生救活了那个煤气中毒的人。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• She had been literally rejuvenated, resuscitated, brought back from the lip of the grave. 她确确实实返老还童了，恢复了精力，被从坟墓的进口处拉了回来。 来自辞典例句

13 bracelets   

n.手镯，臂镯( bracelet的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The lamplight struck a gleam from her bracelets. 她的手镯在灯光的照射下闪闪发亮。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• On display are earrings, necklaces and bracelets made from jade, amber and amethyst. 展出的有用玉石、琥珀和紫水晶做的耳环、项链和手镯。 来自《简明英汉词典》