Answer and cite any case law

You are the Administrator-in-Charge of a busy NYC hospital Emergency Department. Dr. Ortiz is one of three Attending doctors staffing your Department on the current shift, she comes to you for guidance in how to proceed with her most recent patient.

The patient is a 14 year-old who, lives with his parents, and has just sustained a traumatic injury to his arm as a result of an accident with a snow blower. In Dr. Ortiz’s opinion the boy’s arm requires immediate surgery and amputation of the limb below the elbow, an orthopedic resident has evaluated the patient and agrees. If surgery is delayed it is likely that gangrene will set in and ultimately more radical surgery will be necessary or the patient may die.

The problem is that the patient’s parents have just taken off from JFK Airport on a flight to Tokyo and because of communication problems are unreachable for the duration of the 20 hour flight and thus cannot consent to the surgery. Dr. Ortiz says that the surgery cannot be delayed that long.

Assuming that all of the above is correct, and that you are not able to contact the parents or any other relative, what do you tell Dr. Ortiz? How should Dr. Ortiz proceed? Should the surgery be delayed while waiting for the parents to land in Tokyo?

Please explain the basis of your answer and cite any case law (patient informed and implied consent) that supports your position.

Please submit your essay with at least 500 words (or more).

Remember that a portion of the grade on this question will be based upon an evaluation of your writing. Make sure that your essay has an Introduction Sentence, a summary/body, and a conclusion.

Be sure that your essay is grammatically correct with proper spelling (points will be deducted for misspelled words and poor grammar!!). Use the APA format if you need to cite sources of information.