Nobody Gets Out AliveDNR and DNI orders
Instructions about CPR and breathing machines.
Not medical advice. This page is general information. Laws and forms vary where you live, and so does every family. Your doctor can tell you what applies to you.
DNR means do not resuscitate. It is an instruction not to do CPR if your heart stops or you stop breathing. DNI means do not intubate. It is an instruction not to place a breathing tube and connect you to a breathing machine.
They are medical orders, written by a doctor or other clinician, not the same thing as an advance directive. You can have one without the other. An advance directive says what you want. An order is what the care team follows.
A DNR does not mean stopping other treatment. Medicines, comfort care and everything else can continue. In some places an order written in the hospital does not carry over to home or an ambulance, and a separate form is needed. Some places use a portable medical orders form, often called POLST or MOLST in the United States, for people with serious illness. What is available, and who qualifies, depends on where you live.
Whether these orders fit depends on a person’s health, their goals and their doctor’s advice. They are a choice, they can be changed, and they are worth talking about before a crisis, not during one.
Questions to talk over
- What do I want done if my heart stopped, or if I could not breathe on my own?
- Have I talked this over with my doctor?
Covered in Episode 1: The Conversation We Keep Avoiding.