I knew that it was going to be a long day. It was the morning round, the intensive care unit (ICU) was full, staff were racing around shouting orders at each other, telling me to cancel the cardiothoracic list ‘because we had no beds’ and the night resident began the hand over by stating that the first patient who had just been admitted, intubated, ventilated and paralysed, was an 81 year old m...

The function GrpSeqBnds computes efficacy and futility boundaries given the stipulation of the information fraction, total type I and type II error probabilities and method of boundary construction. The efficacy and futility boundaries can be constructed either simulataneously or one at a time. The function also allows for two information scales. The following sequence of variance fractions res...

Conflict in health service delivery is common. It is often attributed to disputes between clinicians and patients or their families about treatment decisions and is particularly common in intensive care units (ICUs), in the form of ;futility disputes' between families and medical clinicians about decisions to terminate the active treatment of a dying family member. More common, but less promine...

To purchase electronic or print reprints, contact the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses, 101 Columbia, Aliso Viejo, CA 92656. Phone, (800) 899-1712 or (949) 362-2050 (ext 532); fax, (949) 362-2049; e-mail, [email protected]. We praise Williams and Dahnke 1 for initiating a discussion on the very important subject of ethical issues surrounding the withdrawal of extracorporeal membrane...