Sudden and unexpected death in a palliative care unit

The mode of death in specialist palliative care units or hospices could inform discussions on cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR).1 2 We recently analysed 100 consecutive deaths in our 20 bed unit. All patients had cancer, and the deaths represented half of the 197 admissions over 24 weeks. Mode of death was categorised pragmatically at weekly multidisciplinary team meetings as gradual and expected (an expected death …