Case Study API
Fall, 2024
A woman enters the emergency room with stomach pain. She undergoes a CT scan and
is diagnosed with an abdominal aortic aneurysm, a weakening in the wall of the aorta
which causes it to stretch and bulge.
1. What famous actor died from this diagnosis?
2. Look up abdominal aortic aneurysm and briefly write about your understanding
of it.
The physicians inform her that time is of the essence, and that should the aneurysm
burst, she would be dead in a few short minutes. The women, however, is an exotic
dancer; she worries that the surgery will leave a scar that will negatively affect her
work. Therefore, she refuses any surgical treatment.
3. What would you do if you were the surgeon and a patient refuses surgery based
on the reasons that this patient claimed?
Even after much pressuring from the physicians, the woman adamantly refuses
surgery. Feeling that the woman is “not in her correct state of mind” the surgeon
decides to preform the procedure without the consent. They anesthetize her and
surgically repair the aneurysm. She survives, and sues the hospital and the surgeon for
millions.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Do you believe that the physician’s actions can, in any way, be justified?
Is there anything else that they (surgeon, hospital) could have done?
What is the definition of autonomy?
Is it EVER right to take away someone’s autonomy? (Would a court order have
made this physician’s decision ethical)
8. What would you have done if you were one of the health care workers involved?