All too often families will avoid the discussions of end of life wishes and guardianship issues until an urgent life and death decision needs to be made. At that time, family members will face difficult decisions and can sometimes start fighting over emergency life and death decisions of their loved one. These end of life guardianship
battles can be extremely nasty and permanently rip families apart.
As such, it is typically best to have a
Texas Directive to Physicians or Advance Directives (formerly called
Living Will). It is a written statement of your wishes regarding
the use, withholding or withdrawal of life-prolonging treatment,
nutrition and hydration. If you have a terminal condition and are
incapable of making decisions for yourself at that time, this medical directive will help guide your family as to how you wish to proceed.
Additionally, you may want to designate a person or persons that
know your specific wishes with a Medical Power of Attorney,
Springing Durable Power of Attorney, and HIPPA Authorization. Anyone that goes into a hospital for surgery should probably have a person that can watch out over them in
the hospital and make sure that they have the above documents just
in case.
Below is an interesting article on end of life issues that provides an interesting perspective on this topic.
Death With Dignity: How Doctors Die - Mind & Body - Utne Reader
"Almost all medical professionals have seen what we call “futile care”
being performed on people near the end of life. The patient will get cut
open, perforated with tubes, hooked up to machines, and assaulted with
drugs. All of this occurs in the intensive care unit at a cost of tens
of thousands of dollars a day. What it buys is misery we would not
inflict on a terrorist. I cannot count the number of times fellow
physicians have told me, “Promise me if you find me like this that
you’ll kill me.”
No comments:
Post a Comment