Blacks Fare Worse After Cardiac Arrest

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This is absolutely not surprising to me. As a palliative care and hospice physician, I know in my practice and in the literature that blacks are far more likely to undergo futile care and demand resuscitation than to elect a DNR (Do Not Resuscitate). The difference in the outcomes can be entirely explained by this fact. Black patients who never had a chance to survive a resuscitation undergo resuscitation more often than white patients because more white patients elect a DNR when the odds of survival are dismal. The white DNR patients are not included in this analysis because they die a peaceful death without resuscitation.
This is not a system problem, nor is it racial disparity. I work hard to educate my black patients about DNR when death is inevitable. Without fail, I have numerous black patients who still demand resuscitation and futile care despite this education. Therefore, the problem lies in blacks' mistrust of the medical system. This article certainly does nothing to ameliorate that mistrust.

Reynold of NC 6:46PM March 11, 2010

You've got to be freakin kiddin me! This is the most BS article I have ever read. Or maybe its not even that the study is bull, perhaps it's how the author of this article misinterpreted the results in order to maintain the image of "white-privilege". This article is an attempt to tarnish the image of black people in terms of health. Im not buying your interpretation of the results of this study. As a psychology graduate with familiarity with research studies, I have to say that the results of this study are being totally misconstrued. Let's take a look. Shall we? There are total of 10,011 patient records observed for the purposes of this study. Out of those 10,011 patients records, 19% of those were black. Let's do the math people! There are only 1,902 black people in this study. This article fails to mention the percentage of white people out of those 10,011 patients who participated in this study. If you are going to compare "whites" to "blacks" then knowing the number of white people who participated is relevant! Let's move on and break down the results of this study properly. Shall we? The article reads that 54.8% of those black patients were sucessfully resuscitated. Remember the magic number of 1,902 black people?; 54.8% of 1,902 black patients, is a total of 1,042 black patients who were sucessfully resuscitated. Out of those 1,042 black patients whom were suscessfully resuscitated, 45.2% survived to discharge from the hospital. Let's see, 45.2% of the total number of black patients is 860 people whom survived. We now need the number of white patients whom participated in order to make a comparison. The study reflects that our white counterparts were suscessfully resuscitated at a rate of 67.4%. Moreover, the study reflects that out of the total number of white patients, a number we do not know, 55.5% survived. There could have been 7000 white patients for godsake or perhaps even more. Which would mean thousands of white patients were sucessfully resuscitated to survive to discharge from the hospital. And Dr. Kim A. Williams, I am just shocked that you did not catch this misinterpretation. You state "I am truly shocked at the results -- only 11 percent less initial resuscitation success...I thought the differential was far greater than this study demonstrates..." Dr. Williams, you can not know what the study "demonstrates" without knowing the total number of white people who have participated. Understood?

Samuel of NY 10:02AM September 19, 2009

I believe this because African
Americans have to pay more for health care and the care we receive is poor from the start this is so sad but true i do not think racism is over just well hidden

muffy of IL 12:21PM September 18, 2009

This article should be re-written to cover the fact that those that have a heart attack in a hospital with a poor reputation are more likely to die.
To say that "blacks fair worse after cardiac arrest", and then give the facility they're in as a contributing factor is like saying "people of middle eastern heritage fare worse after cardiac arrest" and then saying it's because their hospitals have been destroyed in war.
If you're going to pick an ethnicity, and report on how that group suffers from a health issue, then focus on the health and physiology. Don't pick out a group, title the article to scare that group, and then end the article with a statement that it's a system problem. Why not make the article's focus and title have something to do with people in lower-income areas, or those impacted by crime, gangs, and poverty, and the impact that those factors have on the health care provided to the people who live there. Or how the medical staff in those facilities might be over taxed and understaffed because a)nobody wants to work there, b)the hospital is in financial trouble, because c)the consumers don't have any healthcare coverage.
Be real. The article needs to be as well.

Eric, RN of NY 11:54AM September 16, 2009