Advance Directives
Yuronda Lewis

Advance directives were created to respond to the increasing sophistication and prevalence of the medical technology of today’s world. The wishes of the dying are going unheard because they didn’t make plans before the time came along. This is when the situation of living wills, durable power of attorney, and other directives came into place. Living wills provide the specific course of treatment that is to be followed when a person is dying. The durable power of attorney gives another person the right to state the last wishes of a dying person. There are four kinds of legal advance directives that are followed in any case of the dying and the parties left behind to decide. The first choice is the living will of a person. The second choice is the durable power of attorney given by a person to another person to decide. The third choice is a person legally stating their wants in writing before they are ill. The last choice is the person leaving the choice to a health care agent through a health care agency. I have personally been involved in every situation of this topic. My mother got ill and put a durable power of attorney in place for me to make the decisions for her care. There came a time when I couldn’t afford the cost of her choice and she signed her care over to a hospice facility and they became responsible for care and I lost the right to make any decisions about her care. She made this decision because the hospital wouldn’t let me take her home and the facility said that they would grant her wishes when she signed up with them. In the end, they gave my drugs to speed up the process of her death because they didn’t want pay for her care to live longer then the insurance company would pay the facility. Any choice that is made has consequences to it because someone will be unhappy in the end accept for the insurance company, the hospital, and the health care agency that is involved with the car of the patient that they are caring for. I would say to let the patient dye at home if the situation would provide the family to be able for this choice. My mother lost her right to care for herself because of the cost of her death. The health care laws in each state are different and each situation needs to learn them for their family’s protection. I would like to describe the situation with my mother and what our family went through before, during, and after my mother’s death. In the month of September of 2011, my mother went through a procedure that was to make her bones stronger. Three days after the procedure, my mother had a bad fall and broke her hip and the hospital would not help. My son and I nursed my mother back on her feet by January of 2012 but she was having trouble with her diabetes. I called the four clinics that my mother was enrolled in to get help to get her to the hospital and I was told that it would cost $2000.00 dollars out of my pocket to get her to the hospital. I couldn’t afford that. My mother got very ill due to her Diabetes and I had to take her to the hospital in the car. The hospital kept my mother for two weeks. While she was in the hospital, she was given the wrong medicine but the mistake was not found until four days after the hospital let my mother come home. My mother had a doctor’s visit two days later and this issue was going to be addressed. I took my mother to that doctor’s appointment and we were told that the doctor didn’t know what we were talking about. I got my mother home and opened her front door to her apartment, the hospital was calling telling my mother that she was going to die if she didn’t come back to the hospital the next day. It took me three days to get $200.00 dollars to rent a car to take my mother to this doctor’s visit and she was told again that they didn’t know what she was talking about. During this visit my mother, she fail and broke her hip again. She stayed in the hospital for week and the doctors wanted to perform an operation but my mother wouldn’t live through the surgery and my mother said no. I was told that I couldn’t take my mother home in the rented car that I had and I was told that I had to rent a ride for her at $1500.00 and I didn’t have that amount of money to pay for that My mother was told that the only way that she could get home was to be put in a hospice and in three days that they would transport her home. She had to sign herself into the hospice and this gave the hospice the right to make to make the medical decisions for but they didn’t explain that part to her before she signed herself in the program. My mother was at the hospice for three days and the hospice was treating her as if she was dying then. I brought my mother home on that Monday and my son and I took care of my mother for the first week and then my had a problem and I called the hospice to help deal the problem and the people from the hospice came out to her house and they told me that because I was not giving my mother the pain meds like they wanted that they were going to take my mother back to the hospice and my mother said that she wanted to cancel her contract with the hospice. She was told that she could but no one came out to cancel the contract but they drugged her against her will with a drug that would take away her right to make a choice about her care. They gave her enough of this drug that day that my mother went into a comb and she never came out of it. It took my mother another six days to die from the effects of the drugs that they would giving her. The hospice brought in people and paid them for 24 hour around the clock care to make sure that she was given the drugs to help her die. I can say that before I called for help from the hospice that they didn’t care if she was getting the drugs that they sent her with. When my mother wanted out of the contract then they drugged her and when I wanted to get her out of the contract then I was told that my mother was not in the frame of mind to sign the contract. I don’t believe that any health care facility has the patient’s best interest at heart but the dollar sign is what is up front and most important. I have been angry seen this situation has happened and it makes me feel that will keep their word. Being in this school has shown me that people don’t keep their word and that the person in need doesn’t matter but what is best for them and fuck the person in need.

REFERENCES

Medicine Net (2014). Advance Medical Directives. Medicine Net.com. Retrieved: http://www.medicinenet.com/advance_medical_directives/article.htm

NOLO Law for All (2014). Types of Health Care Directives. NOLO.com. Retrieved: http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/living-will-power-attorney-advance-directive- 30023.html

NOLO Law for All (2014). What Health Care Directives Are Called In Your State. NOLO.com. Retrieved: http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/health-care-declarations-your-state.html

NOLO Law for All (2014). What Do a Living Will and Power of Attorney for Health Care Cover?. NOLO.com. Retrieved: http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/living-will-power- attorney-medical-issues-29536.html

NOLO Law for All(2014). Choosing Your Health Care Agent. NOLO.com. Retrieved: http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/choosing-health-care-agent-29939.html

Rocket Lawyer(2014). Living Will vs. Durable Health Care Power of Attorney. Rocket Lawyer.Com. http://www.rocketlawyer.com/article/the-difference-between-a-living-will-and- durable-power-of-attorney-for-health-care.rl Retrieved: