Ensure your Preferred Medical Care

Tuesday, August 4th, 2009

The main problem with estate plans today is that they don’t have any documents for health care.  Another serious problem is that they don’t understand the documents they have, or worse, they have the wrong documents.  Here are some documents you need to make sure that your wishes are followed:

• *Living Will - very simple to execute as most states recognize living wills officially.  The idea behind this is to avoid certain levels or types of care (also known as “heroic measures”) in different circumstances.  A very simple living will would state “I don’t want to prolong my life through any artificial means if I contracted a terminal illness with no hope for recovery.”  Although following this statement may result to a debate (since there is no exact definition of a terminal illness), it’s still necessary to guide your relatives on what to do when you’re brain dead or in a vegetative state.
• *Do not hospitalize/resuscitate order - DNH and DNR orders are common for older people in frail conditions, most especially those in nursing homes.  These people preferred to be in the comfort of their homes rather than pass away in a hospital.
• *Power of attorney/health care proxy - a document that appoints a person or several people to make the medical decisions when they’re unable to do so.

Tags: DNH, DNR, documents, health care, health-care proxy, living will, plans, power of attorney
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