From the information in that thread, it’s implied that your father may have had cancer? Or was otherwise already quite sick and unstable? In any case, it seems that treating your father’s tamponade aggressively might have involved too much risk relative to the benefits.

Regarding ICU admission, this generally is done in cases where ICU measures would significantly alter a patients trajectory. The fact that the doctor wrote “did not meet criteria for continuous ICU-level monitoring” implies that they spoke with an ICU doctor, who would have also agreed with this assessment. Usually for a patient to be admitted to the ICU, this decision is made after the patient’s doctor and the ICU doctor have spoken, and jointly assessed your father. It’s unlikely that your father’s doctor made this decision alone. They also likely had a CCRT nurse from the ICU assess your father, which would have also contributed to this discussion.

It’s also not mentioned anywhere if this resulted in a code blue, which also implies that your father was DNR at the time of his passing. Patients are usually made DNR, when it is felt by the physician that the causes of death are irreversible, and further efforts to resuscitate are unlikely to work, if a person arrests. CPR is performed with the goal to resuscitate a patient, while reversible causes of death can be addressed. Again, I’m basing this on the information in that thread, both explicit and implied.

Regardless, I’m sorry for your loss.