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Quick Tip for Families in Intensive Care: How to Reverse the DNR (Do Not Resuscitate) or NFR (Not for Resuscitation) in Intensive Care?

Quick Tip for Families in Intensive Care: How to Reverse the DNR (Do Not Resuscitate) or NFR (Not for Resuscitation) in Intensive Care?

Update: 2025-08-08
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Quick Tip for Families in Intensive Care: How to Reverse the DNR (Do Not Resuscitate) or NFR (Not for Resuscitation) in Intensive Care?

How to reverse the DNR (Do Not Resuscitate) or NFR (Not for Resuscitation) in intensive care. That’s what we’re going to discuss today.

My name is Patrik Hutzel from intensivecarehotline.com, and this is another quick tip for families in intensive care.

If I had a dollar for every family that approached us over the years here at intensivecarehotline.com that said, “Oh, my family member has a DNR or an NFR in ICU, and we don’t know anything about it, we just found out and we want to reverse it”, I would be a very wealthy man, because there are so many families in intensive care that encounter this life or death issue.

On a bigger scheme on the grand scale, I’ve been blogging about this and in my videos, talking about it for, since 2013, that ICUs all around the world issue DNRs or NFRs, DNR stands for do not resuscitate, NFR stands, not for resuscitation, most of the time, I argue illegally without patient or family consent, and there are ways to revoke that because we have helped so many families over the years to revoke that DNR, there’s case studies on our website, there’s testimonials on our website, there’s even interviews on our website, and our podcast section at intensivecarehotline.com, how we’ve helped, literally within less than 24 hours to revoke the DNR or an NFR.

So, let’s break it down step by step. Reversing a ‘Do Not Resuscitate’ order in ICU is possible, but it must be done with clear communication, a little bit of legal understanding, and documented consent. Here’s how to approach it step by step.

Number one, identify who has the legal authority. If the patient is conscious, which most patients in ICU are not, mentally competent and able to communicate, they can revoke their own DNR at any time.

Next, healthcare proxy power of attorney. If the patient is incapacitated, the appointed legal decision maker by an advanced directive or medical power of attorney has the right to reverse the DNR or NFR.

Family. If no power of attorney is assigned and no advance directive exists, family members, usually in a legal hierarchy, may be able to request the change depending on state or country laws.

To break this down even further, most ICUs, especially when patients are incapacitated or, unconscious, ICUs want you as a family to make decisions. They want you to sign off on procedures, on diagnostics, etc, keep this in mind, how can you as a family member, sign off on, surgery, on diagnostics, on medical procedures that could be life or death decisions without you also being able to reverse the DNR?

There’s a lot of arguments to be made around that, that you can’t really sign off on anything, unless you are also able to reverse a DNR or an NFR. Take that angle and you will actually see that it works.

Next. Notify the ICU medical team immediately. Request an urgent meeting with ICU teams or ICU doctors, intensivists, nurses, and possibly hospital executive. Escalate it as quickly as possible. Clearly state your intention to reverse or revoke the DNR.

If they’re not responsive, escalate it to hospital executive pretty quickly, because that’s what we have done many times with our consulting and advocacy, escalated it to hospital executive with very good results because they know that they’re in breach of laws, breach of ethics.

There’s also an argument to be made, should it be escalated to a hospital ethics team? I have my reservations with hospital ethics team because they are not independent, they are hospital employees, and they will do whatever is in the best interest of the hospital, not what’s in the best interest of your family member.

That’s just my experience, and I would shy away from that,
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Quick Tip for Families in Intensive Care: How to Reverse the DNR (Do Not Resuscitate) or NFR (Not for Resuscitation) in Intensive Care?

Quick Tip for Families in Intensive Care: How to Reverse the DNR (Do Not Resuscitate) or NFR (Not for Resuscitation) in Intensive Care?

Patrik Hutzel