Case Study
Question 1
The affected person or the individual at risk is Maddy. This is particularly because her health is at stake as she is suffering from an advanced chronic illness that requires continuous and immediate attention. However, due to her financial condition and that of her family she cannot afford the treatment. The stakeholders in the situation are the patient, the healthcare providers and the family. This are the person’s that are directly involved and affected by the scenario.
Question 2
Maddy has a health condition that requires adequate and quality health care. However, her health status has be decreasing since she cannot afford the required lifestyle that ranges from proper eating, avoiding stress and making regular visits to the doctor. Maddy’s health condition is slowly deteriorating because she does not attend her clinics regularly since the medical bills depend on her while she has no capability to sustain them (Kozas, 2009). Maddy is highly constrained by both money and time since she works and also has to attend school and watch her health. The family is under no condition to help given that Maddy’s family lost her job months ago and her mother is a part time worker. However, the family is not aware of the recent occurrence to Maddy and her day’s hospitalization (Kozas, 2009). The predicament from the scenario is whether Maddy should undergo the minor surgery despite her financial situation to improve and stabilize her health.
Question 3
The ethical dilemma from Maddy’s case is on whether she should tell her family about the issue despite the fact that stability in the family is a problem. The family has the right to know as they care for her and she cannot solve all this by herself given her current situation.
Question 4
Maddy’s Family is a major stakeholder in the case since she is directly connected to them and mainly because she cannot afford her health care bills. However, the ability of the family is low financially and what they can do to help her is the ethical concern.
Healthcare providers are a primary stakeholder in the case since they are responsible for the provision of health care services and their duty is to save lives. However, Maddy has no money to afford the services and therefore the ethical concern towards them is on whether they should still offer the services to her.
Question 6
With the use of the first ethic code 1957 I would make the decision of treating the patient even without the financial provisions. The code holds that a health practitioner should place health services prior to material gains (AMA, 2016). Medical professional can best be honored through ensuring that the objective of the organization is achieved without fail. The welfare of the patient should be first before the consideration of personal gains.
Question 7
I made the decision because the responsibility of a healthcare provider is to save lives. However, lives are normally saved after the justification of finances which is not right since Maddy’s health is at stake and she requires immediate health attention. The decision is the most appropriate since it will honor the health profession and achieve its responsibility of offering quality services.
Question 8
An alternative decision would be contacting the parent or the governmental institutions for help. Through this a decision and a financial source can easily be achieved through a combination of ideas as well as consultation.
References
AMA. (2016). Code of Medical Ethics. Retrieved from https://www.ama-assn.org/about-us/code-medical-ethics
Kozas, A. (2009).The Case of Madisyn Whitfield: Chronic Illness and the Uninsured. Markkula Center for Applied Ethics.
