Table 1.

Cases in which treatment team and patient/surrogate did not reach consensus for treatment

Cases of unilateral withdrawal	Patient preferences	After ethics committee case review	Treatment withheld or withdrawn	Outcome	Postoutcome litigation
1	Beneficial treatment per advance directive	Family thankful	CPR, increased dose of vasopressors, antiarrhythmics	Comfort measures initiated; patient died in hospital	No
2	Unknown; family never discussed treatment preferences with patient	Family accepting	CPR, stent, increased dose of vasopressors	Comfort measures initiated; patient died in hospital	No
3	No advance directive; patient ambivalent with treatment preferences, then lost capacity	Family unaccepting	CPR, dialysis, vasopressors, antiarrhythmics, tracheostomy, antibiotics	Comfort measures initiated; patient died in hospital	No
4	Family stated that patient requested conservative treatment; no advance directive	Family unaccepting	CPR, dialysis, feeding tube	Comfort measures initiated; patient died in subacute care facility posttransfer	No
5	Conservative treatment requested per advance directive	Family unaccepting	Nasogastric tube and percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy tube	Transferred to another hospital by family; no further contact	No

CPR = cardiopulmonary resuscitation.