Somebody already posted this link, but didn't actually expand or summarise it, so here goes:
Radiolab did a podcast a few months ago[1] which looked at a John Hopkins survey of doctors that has been going on for decades now. 90% of all doctors surveyed said they would not want to be given CPR as a life saving intervention.
In TV and film, CPR is shown as being highly effective - well over 50%. But in reality, CPR can have a survival rate as low as 2%. The best survival rate I could find was 30%, which is where CPR is given immediately by a trained first aider. And that's the survival rate - the majority of people who survive CPR are unable to live normal lives, and may require medical care for life.
And that is not to say that people don't make complete recoveries and live long lives after CPR - it's just that the odds are overwhelmingly against them. It's telling that doctors would prefer not to receive CPR.
By the way, that 90% number means exactly nothing because it is completely dependent on the phrasing of the question. Click on your link and see that this response is conditional on irreversible brain damage. Under these conditions, the doctors also declined surgical interventions 80% of the time.
Look, CPR is a last ditch effort and there are reasons people get DNRs. But please don't go around spreading fear and confusion because of some radiolab factoid you heard.
Radiolab did a podcast a few months ago[1] which looked at a John Hopkins survey of doctors that has been going on for decades now. 90% of all doctors surveyed said they would not want to be given CPR as a life saving intervention.
In TV and film, CPR is shown as being highly effective - well over 50%. But in reality, CPR can have a survival rate as low as 2%. The best survival rate I could find was 30%, which is where CPR is given immediately by a trained first aider. And that's the survival rate - the majority of people who survive CPR are unable to live normal lives, and may require medical care for life.
And that is not to say that people don't make complete recoveries and live long lives after CPR - it's just that the odds are overwhelmingly against them. It's telling that doctors would prefer not to receive CPR.
[1]: http://www.radiolab.org/blogs/radiolab-blog/2013/jan/15/bitt...