Prof Mark Taubert | |
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Born | Hessen, Germany |
Alma mater | University of Dundee |
Occupation | Consultant Physician |
Known for | TEDx Talk "Why language matters when you are dying" |
Notable work | Talk CPR Learning and Education Resources "TalkCPR" |
Website | Cardiff University Staff Profiles "Prof Mark Taubert" |
Professor Mark Taubert FRCP FRCGP is a German-British consultant doctor and professor of medicine at Cardiff University. [1] [2] He is a palliative care physician in Wales, who according to the Western Mail [3] and Welsh Government website [4] has contributed significantly to the development of his specialty, and has received recognition as a doctor and campaigner, nationally and internationally.
He wrote to the late David Bowie in January 2016 about a conversation he held with a dying patient, a letter that was shared across the world. [5] [6] [7] [8]
He is founder of TalkCPR, an international information campaign about cardiopulmonary resuscitation and do not attempt cardiopulmonary resuscitation decisions . He is national chair of the Advance & Future Care Strategy Group for the NHS Wales Executive.
He has authored articles on medical topics and palliative care in international newspapers such as the Washington Post [9] and the Guardian. [10] [11] Taubert founded Talk CPR, [12] [13] an international information campaign that discusses do not attempt cardiopulmonary resuscitation decisions, also known by the acronym DNACPR. His explanatory Talk CPR resources have been viewed over a million times worldwide, [14] and he has been interviewed and spoken about the topic on BBC News at Six and BBC News at 10.
Taubert has delivered a TEDx talk on the use of language in palliative care. [15] He has also featured on two palliative care themed recordings for the UK's BBC Listening Project in 2019 [16] and 2020 [17] and on BBC Horizon's 'We need to talk about Death' with Kevin Fong. [18]
He has won national and international awards for his teaching and clinical work, including a Bafta award as part of a care team featured in an ITV documentary. [19] He received the prestigious national BMJ/BMA Clinical Teacher of the year award, [20] [21] the Best Trainer Award Wales 2016 [22] and the Royal College of Physicians Excellence in Patient Care Award. [23]
In 2016, he published a thank you letter to David Bowie after the singer's death, with reference to Bowie's last album, Blackstar. [24] [25] The letter was initially published in the British Medical Journal [26] [27] and then the Independent Newspaper [28] and was shared by David Bowie's son Duncan Jones. [29] It went viral online and in worldwide newsrooms. [30] [31] [32] It was subsequently read out by actor Benedict Cumberbatch [33] and singer Jarvis Cocker [34] at public events. The letter addresses issues such as palliative care and planning for the end of life. Bowie's story became a way to communicate important aspects of dying with a palliative care patient. [35] [36]
The letter was turned into a classical music string quartet composition for BBC Radio 3, featuring Taubert reading the letter. [37] [35] It toured, premiering at the Royal Northern College of Music [38] and the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. According to the Herald Newspaper Scotland it 'sound tracked a reading of an open letter to David Bowie by palliative care doctor Mark Taubert, which has been a celebrated part of the marking of the passing of the rock star, played here on the fourth anniversary of his death.' [39]
The open letter has also been printed in several books, including Dylan Jones' David Bowie- A Life [40] and Letters of Note - Music [41] by Shaun Usher, part of the Letters Live event brand, where the letter was read out twice.
Cardiac arrest, also known as sudden cardiac arrest, is when the heart suddenly and unexpectedly stops beating. As a result, blood cannot properly circulate around the body and there is diminished blood flow to the brain and other organs. When the brain does not receive enough blood, this can cause a person to lose consciousness. Coma and persistent vegetative state may result from cardiac arrest. Cardiac arrest is also identified by a lack of central pulses and abnormal or absent breathing.
Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is an emergency procedure consisting of chest compressions often combined with artificial ventilation, or mouth to mouth in an effort to manually preserve intact brain function until further measures are taken to restore spontaneous blood circulation and breathing in a person who is in cardiac arrest. It is recommended for those who are unresponsive with no breathing or abnormal breathing, for example, agonal respirations.
Clinical death is the medical term for cessation of blood circulation and breathing, the two criteria necessary to sustain the lives of human beings and of many other organisms. It occurs when the heart stops beating in a regular rhythm, a condition called cardiac arrest. The term is also sometimes used in resuscitation research.
Advanced cardiac life support, advanced cardiovascular life support (ACLS) refers to a set of clinical guidelines for the urgent and emergent treatment of life-threatening cardiovascular conditions that will cause or have caused cardiac arrest, using advanced medical procedures, medications, and techniques. ACLS expands on Basic Life Support (BLS) by adding recommendations on additional medication and advanced procedure use to the CPR guidelines that are fundamental and efficacious in BLS. ACLS is practiced by advanced medical providers including physicians, some nurses and paramedics; these providers are usually required to hold certifications in ACLS care.
A do-not-resuscitate order (DNR), also known as Do Not Attempt Resuscitation (DNAR), Do Not Attempt Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (DNACPR), no code or allow natural death, is a medical order, written or oral depending on the jurisdiction, indicating that a person should not receive cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) if that person's heart stops beating. Sometimes these decisions and the relevant documents also encompass decisions around other critical or life-prolonging medical interventions. The legal status and processes surrounding DNR orders vary in different polities. Most commonly, the order is placed by a physician based on a combination of medical judgement and patient involvement.
Peter Safar was an Austrian anesthesiologist of Czech descent. He is credited with pioneering cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR).
Dead on arrival (DOA), also dead in the field, brought in dead (BID), or dead right there (DRT) are terms which indicate that a patient was found to be already clinically dead upon the arrival of professional medical assistance, often in the form of first responders such as emergency medical technicians, paramedics, firefighters, or police.
Thanatology is the scientific study of death and the losses brought about as a result. It investigates the mechanisms and forensic aspects of death, such as bodily changes that accompany death and the postmortem period, as well as wider psychological and social aspects related to death. It is primarily an interdisciplinary study offered as a course of study at numerous colleges and universities.
ABC and its variations are initialism mnemonics for essential steps used by both medical professionals and lay persons when dealing with a patient. In its original form it stands for Airway, Breathing, and Circulation. The protocol was originally developed as a memory aid for rescuers performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation, and the most widely known use of the initialism is in the care of the unconscious or unresponsive patient, although it is also used as a reminder of the priorities for assessment and treatment of patients in many acute medical and trauma situations, from first-aid to hospital medical treatment. Airway, breathing, and circulation are all vital for life, and each is required, in that order, for the next to be effective: a viable Airway is necessary for Breathing to provide oxygenated blood for Circulation. Since its development, the mnemonic has been extended and modified to fit the different areas in which it is used, with different versions changing the meaning of letters or adding other letters.
Lazarus syndrome, also known as autoresuscitation after failed cardiopulmonary resuscitation, is the spontaneous return of a normal cardiac rhythm after failed attempts at resuscitation. It is also used to refer to the spontaneous return of cardiac activity after the patient has been pronounced dead. Its occurrence has been noted in medical literature at least 38 times since 1982. It takes its name from Lazarus who, according to the New Testament, was raised from the dead by Jesus.
Hospice care is a type of health care that focuses on the palliation of a terminally ill patient's pain and symptoms and attending to their emotional and spiritual needs at the end of life. Hospice care prioritizes comfort and quality of life by reducing pain and suffering. Hospice care provides an alternative to therapies focused on life-prolonging measures that may be arduous, likely to cause more symptoms, or are not aligned with a person's goals.
Anna Elisabeth Johansson Bågenholm is a Swedish radiologist from Vänersborg, who survived after a skiing accident in 1999 left her trapped under a layer of ice for 80 minutes in freezing water. During this time she experienced extreme hypothermia and her body temperature decreased to 13.7 °C (56.7 °F), one of the lowest survived body temperatures ever recorded in a human with accidental hypothermia. Bågenholm was able to find an air pocket under the ice, but experienced circulatory arrest after 40 minutes in the water.
An inspiratory impedance threshold device is a valve used in cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) to decrease intrathoracic pressure and improve venous return to the heart. The valve is a part of a mask or other breathing device such as an endotracheal tube, and may open at high or low pressures
"Blackstar" is a song by English rock musician David Bowie. It was released as the lead single from his twenty-sixth and final studio album of the same name on 19 November 2015. "Blackstar" peaked at number 61 on the UK Singles Chart, number 70 on the French Singles Chart and number 78 on the Billboard Hot 100. "Blackstar" received both the Grammy Award for Best Rock Song and the Grammy Award for Best Rock Performance at the 59th Grammy Awards. At 9:57, it was the longest song to enter the Billboard Hot 100 charts, overtaking Harry Chapin's "A Better Place to Be", until Tool broke the record in 2019 with "Fear Inoculum".
Blackstar is the 26th and final studio album by the English musician David Bowie. Released on 8 January 2016, Bowie's 69th birthday, the album was recorded in secret in New York City with his longtime co-producer Tony Visconti and a group of local jazz musicians: Donny McCaslin, Jason Lindner, Tim Lefebvre and Mark Guiliana. The album contains re-recorded versions of two songs, "Sue " and "'Tis a Pity She Was a Whore", both of which were originally released in 2014. More experimental than its predecessor The Next Day (2013), the music on Blackstar combines atmospheric art rock with various styles of jazz. Bowie took inspiration from artists including Kendrick Lamar and Death Grips, listening to them during the album's production. The cover art, designed by Jonathan Barnbrook, features a large black star with five star segments at the bottom that spell out the word "BOWIE".
On 10 January 2016, the English musician David Bowie died at his Lafayette Street home in New York City, having been diagnosed with liver cancer 18 months earlier. He died two days after the release of his twenty-sixth and final studio album, Blackstar, which coincided with his 69th birthday.
Benjamin S. Abella is an American physician, emergency medicine practitioner, internist, academic and researcher. He is the William G. Baxt Professor and Vice Chair of Research at University of Pennsylvania’s Department of Emergency Medicine. He directs the Center for Resuscitation Science and the Penn Acute Research Collaboration at the University. He has participated in developing international CPR guidelines.
ReSPECT stands for Recommended Summary Plan for Emergency Care and Treatment. It is an emergency care and treatment plan (ECTP) used in parts of the United Kingdom, in which personalized recommendations for future emergency clinical care and treatment are created through discussion between health care professionals and a person. These recommendations are then documented on a ReSPECT form.
The Lund University Cardiopulmonary Assist System (LUCAS) device provides mechanical chest compressions to patients in cardiac arrest. It is mostly used in emergency medicine as an alternative to manual CPR because it provides consistent compressions at a fixed rate through difficult transport conditions and eliminates the physical strain on the person performing CPR. The first generation of the LUCAS device was pneumatic, while the second and third generations are battery-operated.