| The standard Massachusetts form of the Health Care | | | | After the DeBakey case we are providing all |
| Proxy can be completed quickly in a lawyer's office | | | | members of our lifetime protection program the |
| by checking a few boxes. But if you believe that | | | | option of creating a Living Will with clear guidelines to |
| form protects your interests, consider this: | | | | direct your health care agent of your specific wishes. |
| In the infamous Terri Schiavo case, Ms. Schiavo did | | | | You make the choice of whether you allow your |
| have a signed and valid health care proxy. That was | | | | agent great discretion or give them specific guidelines |
| not enough to protect her from the involvement of | | | | to follow. You can state that you don't want futile |
| the court, the media and the President in her private | | | | medical treatment, but you'll let your health-care |
| medical affairs. What did she do wrong? She didn't | | | | agent decide what's appropriate when the situation |
| have a Living Will in place to make her wishes known | | | | arises and after consultation with the medical staff. |
| to her Health Care Proxy. That opened the door to | | | | Such things as a respirator, penicillin, gastro-tube, and |
| torturous arguments about what she would have | | | | a pacemaker can be either futile treatment or |
| wished for. | | | | entirely appropriate. With a trusted health-care agent |
| Even more recently, famed heart surgeon, Michael E. | | | | and clear guidelines, you can ensure the right decision |
| DeBakey, who credited his Lebanese-immigrant | | | | will be made on your behalf. As with Dr. DeBakey, it |
| mother's teaching him to sew with his later success | | | | all depends on the situation. |
| as a surgeon, pioneered a technique designed to | | | | Having Documents in Place is Not Enough! Are they |
| prevent fatal aortic aneurysms (ballooning of the | | | | up to date and accessible? |
| aorta). (The technique was named an "aortic | | | | In our practice we find that many people have |
| dissection repair procedure."). At age 97, DeBakey | | | | disability documents including health care proxies, |
| had a life-threatening problem that his own surgical | | | | powers of attorney and HIPPA releases that are |
| procedure could fix, but he had signed a "standard | | | | years or even decades old. The documents |
| form" directing that he not be resuscitated if his | | | | themselves don't have an expiration date written on |
| heart stopped and a note on the chart saying "No | | | | them, so many people incorrectly assume that they |
| Surgery." A reading of his documents might have | | | | are all set-until there is a medical or financial |
| revealed that the form was prefaced by the phrase: | | | | emergency and they try to use their documents! |
| "If I am terminally ill with no reasonable prospect of | | | | We have had calls from clients at banks or medical |
| recovery" then I want no surgery. Yet in the face of | | | | institutions telling us that their documents were being |
| an emergency, as my doctor friends point out, | | | | refused. These institutions, including major banks such |
| medical staff may not read beyond the part about | | | | as Bank of America or Citizens Bank, have |
| "No Surgery." | | | | administrative rules requiring them to decline any |
| At the time, Dr. DeBakey was not terminally ill with | | | | powers of attorney older than a year (six months at |
| no reasonable prospect of recovery. But his | | | | Bank of America). When faced with three, five or |
| documents stood in his doctors' way, not to mention | | | | ten year old documents, these banks turned powers |
| the conventional wisdom that you don't operate on a | | | | of attorney away, just as a disability required their |
| 97-year-old man-even though he was still working full | | | | use. |
| time. Fortunately, after a go-round with the hospital's | | | | It is critical to have current documents, but even |
| Ethics Committee, the operation was performed and | | | | having up to date documents isn't enough. Are your |
| it was successful. In several months, Dr. DeBakey | | | | health care documents accessible? Not many people |
| was back at work. (He lived on until this past July, | | | | carry their critical documents with them, whether |
| just two months short of his 100th birthday.) | | | | they are going on vacation or driving down the road |
| A Better Solution: How can you protect yourself | | | | to the grocery store. Do you know how your |
| better than Terri Schiavo and Dr. DeBakey? Instead | | | | documents will be accessed if you get into an |
| of checking boxes on a standard health care proxy, | | | | accident or some other emergency? The health care |
| include a current Living Will with clear guidelines that | | | | proxy painstakingly drafted by your Attorney can't |
| match your wishes. | | | | help you if it is at home on your bookshelf! |