I entirely agree with you on this post (and 99% of the others!). I work as a nurse on a Medical Admissions Unit and we regularly have to point out to the doctors the futility and potential cruelty of leaving patients for resus, and sometimes its a real battle. For example, on Sunday night a 92yr old man was admitted with haematuria, previous history was advanced dementia and prostate cancer with metastases among other things. His diagnosis was a severe UTI but it took me over 10 minutes to convince the SpR that he shouldn't be for resus, his comment being 'Why, do you think he's going to arrest overnight, he's not that ill'. My argument was that someone with terminal cancer and dementia, and being the age he was, I didn't feel it wasn't in his best interests and would in the event be cruel. I also had to point out that people can die in their sleep wherever they are, the fact he is in hospital might make no difference! Eventually he agreed with me but it struck me that Drs need to be more willing to say 'yay or nay' regarding resus, but it seems a lot of them are scared to make the decision without someone there to hold their hand, which I find worrying since they are either SpR's or consultants! I'm glad that in your case they had the sense to stop, although as you say, it was sort of a shame you had to try in the first place. On a different note, I love your blog, keep up the hard work and when is the new book out??