{"id":11792,"date":"2024-12-31T08:40:00","date_gmt":"2024-12-31T14:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mickeylieberman.com\/medical\/?p=10504"},"modified":"2025-02-23T17:54:48","modified_gmt":"2025-02-23T23:54:48","slug":"what-are-health-care-proxies-advanced-health-care-directives-and-living-wills","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mickeylieberman.com\/medical\/what-are-health-care-proxies-advanced-health-care-directives-and-living-wills\/","title":{"rendered":"What are Health Care Proxies, Advanced Health Care Directives and Living Wills?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Health Care Proxies, Advanced Health Care Directives, and Living Wills<\/span><\/p>\n

Any competent adult has the right to accept and\/or refuse any medical treatment.<\/span><\/p>\n

Doctors are only allowed to tell patients the pros and cons of treatment, they can offer advice, but they cannot order a patient to accept treatment.<\/span><\/p>\n

The problems start when the individual can no longer communicate or is no longer considered mentally competent enough to make their own decisions.<\/span><\/p>\n

When this happens other people step in and try to decide what type of medical treatment the person would want for themselves.<\/span><\/p>\n

Most of us like to believe that we will live long full lives and always be in complete control of our fate.<\/span><\/p>\n

But in reality, this is not always the case. People are injured in car accidents, and freak falls, and have brains that are slipping further and further into oblivion as a direct result of mental illness.<\/span><\/p>\n

When this happens we lose control over the medical treatment that we always took for granted.<\/span><\/p>\n

Health care proxies, advanced health care directives, and living wills are documents that are drafted before a patient loses their mental competency.<\/span><\/p>\n

The legal documents clearly state what type of medical treatment the patient will accept in a given situation and what type of treatment they won’t accept.<\/span><\/p>\n

Doctors are required to work within the boundaries of advanced health care directives, living wills, and health care proxies.<\/span><\/p>\n

An advanced health care directive is a document that is signed when the person is competent in stating their health care desires.<\/span><\/p>\n

One type of advanced health care directive people like to use is a durable power of attorney for health care. <\/span><\/p>\n

A person with a durable power of attorney is a person who has been named by the patient as having the right to make all medical decisions.<\/span><\/p>\n

This person is called a patient advocate. Any mentally competent person over the age of eighteen can be given power of attorney.<\/span><\/p>\n

Before you name someone as your patient advocate make sure they are comfortable with the responsibility they are being given. <\/span><\/p>\n

Make sure that they have a very firm understanding of your medical wishes and desires.<\/span><\/p>\n

A patient advocate can be a friend, spouse, family member, life partner, or lawyer. They should be someone that you can trust with your life.<\/span><\/p>\n

If you do not name a person as your patient advocate the responsibility will automatically go to your closest family member. A patient advocate can only act if you are unable to communicate for yourself.<\/span><\/p>\n

A second popular type of advanced health care directive is a living will. <\/span><\/p>\n

A living will is a document where you state your health care wishes in writing. A living will does not name a patient advocate.<\/span><\/p>\n

If you choose to write a living will, you need to decide if you are willing to be<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00b7 hooked up to a ventilator if you want to be resuscitated if your heart stops<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00b7 If you want life-prolonging drugs<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00b7 any types of surgeries you do not want to have performed on your body<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00b7 If you are in a coma do you want to have a feeding tube inserted?<\/span><\/p>\n

These are all very important decisions to be made.<\/span><\/p>\n

If you are in a coma and the doctors feel that you will never wake up, do you want them to take any steps that will keep your body alive?<\/span><\/p>\n

Living wills are where most people list the times they want to be resuscitated and the times they don’t want to be resuscitated.<\/span><\/p>\n

If you have a living will you should keep it somewhere safe so that it can be easily found in a medical emergency.<\/span><\/p>\n

Some people keep them in their wallets or purses and others choose to register them in a national database.<\/span><\/p>\n

Many people keep them someplace in their homes, while other people choose to put them in a safe deposit box.<\/span><\/p>\n

Critically ill elderly patients facing crucial decisions about their future medical treatment routinely come under the care of hospital physicians who may have no previous relationship with them or their families.<\/span><\/p>\n

The majority of patients for whom this sort of decision must be made are unable to participate in decision-making because of dementia, delirium, or both. <\/span><\/p>\n

They are desperately ill, often with a new medical problem with which they have had little time to come to terms.<\/span><\/p>\n

Hospital physicians must rely on advance directives either a living will, health care proxy, or both to make decisions. <\/span><\/p>\n

Translating advance directives into practice is a challenging and complex process that is best approached carefully and systematically.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Health Care Proxies, Advanced Health Care Directives, and Living Wills Any competent adult has the right to accept and\/or refuse any medical treatment. Doctors are…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11792","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-medical-topics","wpcat-2-id"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t