Diseases and illness can be so complex despite advances in technology and the evolution of education. Doctors spend years studying the human body, diseases and other illness but seem to take one step forward and three steps back as diseases conform. Infections become resistant to antibiotics, cancers spread at rapid rates, and auto immune disorders slowly attack the body as it slowly kills itself. Among these complex diseases is a disease known as Guillain-Barre Syndrome.
Guillain-Barre Syndrome is a very rare condition that causes a person’s own immune system to rapidly deteriorate nerve cells, causing muscle weakness and sometimes paralysis. According to the Center for Communicable diseases an estimated 3,000 to 6,000 people develop GBS …show more content…
A simple cold transmitted in a hospital could spread to an immunocompromised patient and develop nosocomial pneumonia that contains a mortality rate of 20–50% (Alp, 2004). With this in mind, it is important to have an advance directive in place to respect your wishes concerning medical treatments at the end of life. An advance directive is a living document that is commonly referred to as a living will which specifies what actions should be taken regarding the patients’ health should they no longer be able to make decisions for themselves because of illness or impairment. Specific actions include but are not limited to dialysis and breathing machines, resuscitation efforts if your breathing or heartbeat stops, tube feedings, and organ or tissue donations. When a medical emergency takes place and families gather around a loved one, stress and emotions are at an all-time high and a heavy burden could be placed on a close relative to make a medical decision, but if an advance directive actions are signed such as “do not intubate”, the doctors must respect the wishes of the patient regardless of what the family wants, unless all medical decision making has been extended to someone in the family as part of the advance directive (What, n.d.). Living wills or advance directives are extremely important documents which allow hospitals and loved ones to respect the medical choices of a patient in