Copyright Goodheart-Willcox Co., Inc 128 Unit 2 The Healthcare Environment Goodheart-Willcox Publisher Figure 7.8 Disability access symbols. CC Large Print International Symbol of Accessibility Accessible Print Access for Individuals Who Are Blind or Have Low Vision Volume Control Telephone Sign Language Interpretation Assistive Listening Systems Teletype Device (TTY) Closed Captions A 10-year-old girl is admitted to the hospital. She has a brain injury and was transferred to the rehabilitation unit after ankle surgery. As a result of her brain injury, she is unable to speak or see. The girl’s mother has insisted that the girl be handfed pureed food instead of being tube fed, as the mother believes that it is one of her daughter’s few pleasures in life. It takes the mother an hour to feed her each time. The hospital staff is busy and concerned about the three- hour hand-feeding requirement. The clinical staff believes that the tube feeding will provide the nutrients the child needs, so the hand feeding is not clinically necessary. There is no medical reason to prevent the child from eating pureed food. 1. Does the hospital have an ethical obligation to feed the child by hand? Do they have a legal obligation? Why or why not? 2. Is this a reasonable accommodation? Why or why not? 3. Is it ethical for hospital staff to spend three hours a day feeding the child if it is not clinically necessary, as that is time taken away from other patients? Ethical Dilemma MR.Yanukit/Shutterstock.com