Teaching hospitals sometimes have new doctors practice routine medical procedures on newly dead bodies - usually without permission from the deceased person's family, a survey finds.
Researchers sent the survey to 449 training programs in adult and child critical care. Of the 353 that responded, 39 percent said they used the bodies of newly dead people to teach medical procedures, and 10 percent said they got consent first from families.The most common procedure taught this way was putting a tube into the windpipe. Other procedures include needles into various organs and draining fluid from around the heart.
The survey was conducted by Dr. Jeffrey Burns of New England Medical Center in Boston and two colleagues. It was published in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine.
Many such procedures are largely taught with dummies. However, doctors defending the use of dead patients said it is important for those learning lifesaving procedures to practice as well on the human body.
They say they are reluctant to seek permission for this because of the difficulty of approaching patients' relatives moments after their loved one has died.
Burns said he wrote about the issue because he thought it was important to discuss it openly.