Informed Consent or Not?

Informed Consent or Not?

A 64-year-old woman with multiple sclerosis (MS) is hospitalized. The team feels she may need to be placed on a feeding tube to assure adequate nourishment. They ask the patient about this in the evening (before the tube has been placed), the patient becomes disoriented and seems confused about her decision to have the feeding tube placed. She tells the team she doesn’t want it in. They revisit the question in the morning when the patient is again lucid. Unable to recall her state of mind from the previous evening, the patient again agrees to the procedure.