Busting Clots on Your Behalf? The Ethics of Presumed Consent to Thrombolytics in Acute Stroke
Channel: HMS Center for Bioethics
Date: 2015-11-17

A Neuroethics Seminar Series Event with Winston Chiong, Lee Schwamm, and Jolion McGreevy at Harvard Medical School Center for Bioethics

Follow the discussion on Twitter @HMSbioethics #neuroethx

About this event
You've just suffered a large stroke, and are unable to communicate. Your doctor in the ER wants to give you a thrombolytic ("clot-busting") drug. The drug will improve your odds of a good outcome from the stroke, but also comes with a small risk of brain hemorrhage (which might make you worse off). If the doctor can't find your surrogate decision-maker, should she give you the drug anyway?

Panelists will discuss the ethics of presumed (or "emergency", or "implied") consent in the context of caring for patients with acute stroke.

Speakers
- Introduction -
Thomas I. Cochrane, MD, MBA
Associate Neurologist and Senior Ethics Consultant, Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Assistant Professor of Neurology and Director of Neuroethics, Center for Bioethics, Harvard Medical School

- Panel -
Winston Chiong MD, PhD 
Memory and Aging Center, University of California San Francisco

Lee Schwamm MD 
Director, TeleStroke and Acute Stroke, Massachusetts General Hospital

Jolion McGreevy MD 
Emergency Medicine, Boston University