Although informed consent is typically required before a medical intervention can be performed on a patient, if he/she is unable to consent and no next of kin is unavailable, the physician can perform necessary therapeutic interventions without consent that are consistent with the best current standards of care. It is not necessary to consult the hospital ethics committee about this situation. The patient will likely die of internal bleeding without intervention, so it is inappropriate to wait until the patient wakes. Although it may be important to know if the patient is an organ donor if the patient expires, this is not the most appropriate next course of action.