Your Advance Directive Options: Questions and Answers
Life brings many changes over the years, and not all of them are welcome. While no one likes to think about terminal or incapacitating medical conditions, you must consider what might happen if others close to you didn't know or couldn't implement your healthcare or end-of-life wishes on your behalf.
Legal instruments called advance directives permit you to express your specific or general healthcare wishes, from who gets to make healthcare decisions as your representative to what kind of life-sustaining care you may or may not want. Check out the following questions and answers to learn more about your options.
What Does a DNR Involve?
DNR stands for Do Not Resuscitate. This kind of order tells the attending physician that you do not want any special measures to revive you in the event of a cardiopulmonary crisis. If you stop breathing or your heart stops pumping, the attending doctor will know not to administer cardiopulmonary resuscitation or artificial respiration.
If you suffer from a complicating health condition that significantly lowers your odds of surviving a heart attack or other cardiopulmonary event, you may want to create a DNR. Even when individuals respond to resuscitation efforts, they may experience lasting brain, heart, or lung damage that destroys their quality of life.
Every U.S. state recognizes the validity of a DNR. Even if you don't have any other kind of advance directive in place, your emergency or intensive care team will follow its instructions. However, if you move from one state to another, you may need to create a new DNR that conforms to that state's individual laws and requirements.
How Does a POLST Differ From a DNR?
POLST stands for Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment. Like a DNR, a POLST establishes and legally enforces your wishes in an end-of-life scenario. Unlike a DNR, however, a POLST's authority extends beyond cardiopulmonary crises, applying to any kind of serious or terminal health challenge.
Since many incapacitating health problems don't center around heart or lung failure, a POLST should prove more useful to most individuals than the strict boundaries of a DNR. However, you must experience a terminal condition or extreme physical frailty before you can fill out a POLST, with your physician certifying your condition.
Your POLST can go into considerable detail about what degree of medical assistance you want. For instance, you can specify when the medical team should withhold ventilation, food, or water. You can also express your wishes regarding palliative care to keep you comfortable and whether you want to donate your organs.
Why Do You Need a Medical POA?
POLST and DNR documents operate under fairly limited circumstances. You may need a much more wide-ranging legal instrument to cover medical situations that don't involve imminent death or cardiorespiratory failure. A medical POA, or Power of Attorney, provides that extra scope.
In a medical POA, also called a living will, you name a representative who will have the authority to make healthcare decisions on your behalf. This authority applies to any situation in which you can't make medical decisions for yourself, such as a coma, dementia, or psychiatric illness. These decisions may extend to end-of-life care.
Each state maintains its own standards and processes for living wills. Oregon combines the medical POA with other kinds of directives in a single advance directive form. This form lets you designate a representative to make medical decisions for you while still enforcing your specific preferences in various end-of-life scenarios.
If you want to make certain that your doctor and loved ones will understand and implement your personal medical wishes, talk to the estate planning experts at Rise Law Group. We can discuss your concerns, make recommendations, and help you fill out the proper advanced directive instruments. Contact our law office today.