Annals of emergency medicine
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To determine whether family members of recently deceased emergency department patients would consent to the performance of a cricothyrotomy on the deceased for educational purposes. ⋯ Although there are difficulties in obtaining consent to perform invasive procedures on the recently deceased in the ED for educational purposes, our study demonstrates that many families will consent to such procedures if adequate information and explanation are provided. The results of this study may not be applicable to institutions serving patients with different cultural and ethnic backgrounds.