Er nurse encouraged nuclear scan for positive d dimer in patient. family member had declared dnr and said no heparin if positive. why get the test?

Not doing treatment : If the patient is not going to get treatment for a pe should not do the test. Just doing a test to get information causes a lot of anxiety.

Get Nuclear Scan : Before cardiac arrest, treat patient as this is not a hospice or "comfort care only" patient yet. Offcourse, goals of care need to be discussed with the patient and primary decision maker/proxy but pulmonary embolism is a high symptom burden disease, diagnosis will lead to treatment (which could be low dose coumadin), which will further prevent embolism extension, severe breathlessness and pain.