After receiving many calls from clients enquiring whether it was true that their Advance Health Care Directives could be ignored by a hospital, my attention was drawn to an article in the Los Angeles Times (6/13/11) headlined erroneously “Advance Directives Can Be Ignored”
In her article, the writer frequently uses the term “advance directive” when she actually means “Living Will” which is only one section of a modern California “Advance Directive,” more correctly called an “Advance Health Care Directive”
This interchangeable usage is both misleading and inaccurate. Californians today have, or ought to have, a modern multi-part Advance Health Care Directive that includes not only a Living Will but also a durable power of attorney for health care. Every hospital in California is legally bound to accept in its entirety a durable power of attorney for health care.
The person holding the power of attorney, known as an “agent,” has the authority to make health-care decisions for a patient who is unable to do so for him or herself. Obviously, a patient under anesthetic cannot direct a surgeon on how to correct an unexpected adverse reaction, which is why a living will may be suspended during surgery,
However an agent can still enforce the patient’s living will if, for example, a hospital ignores a patient’s instruction to take no extraordinary measures to keep the patient alive, either during or out of surgery. I hope I am right in believing that no California physician would ignore a patient’s wishes, as expressed in an Advance Health Care Directive, without first consulting with the patent’s agent.
If you are resident in California and only have a “Living Will,” you need to get an Advance Health Care Directive. You should check with your estate-planning attorney if you don’t have a Directive or one not made within the last few years.
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