ADVANCE DIRECTIVES ATTORNEY
IN SOUTHLAKE, TEXAS

According to studies funded by the Otto Haas Charitable Trust, about 36.7 percent of respondents reported having created an advance health care directive. This is a document that specifies a person’s wishes for treatment in a life-or-death situation and names an “agent” to ensure those wishes are honored.

Advance directives are often popularly associated with “do not resuscitate” orders. While that desire can be part of an advance directive, there are many other preferences for treatment or the withholding of treatment that can be specified.

Estate planning involves caring for your loved ones after you’re gone, but it should also take into consideration your own future. No matter what age you are, you can never be sure if something unexpected might happen. What if you suddenly end up incapacitated in a hospital and unable to speak for yourself? That’s the purpose of an advance directive.

You’re never too young or old to start estate planning, but you can be too late, especially if misfortune does strike. To discuss all your estate planning needs and desires, contact the Redding Law Office PLLC. Attorney Chelsea Redding can evaluate your unique circumstances with you and help you craft your advance health care directive. Her firm proudly serves clients throughout Southlake, Texas, and the surrounding cities of Flower Mound, Keller, and Colleyville.

What Is an Advance Directive?

An advance health care directive usually consists of two essential components that can be incorporated into one document. One component is a directive on the treatments you desire and don’t desire. This part is also commonly referred to as a living will. The other component is a medical power of attorney, which names an agent to act on your behalf when you are hospitalized and incapacitated.

The advance directive can be modified or revoked at any time. To create or modify an advance directive, you must be “competent,” meaning you have the mental and emotional capacity to know what you’re doing, but competency is not required to revoke the document. You can end it at any time.

In the directive or “living will” portion of the document, you can state your preferences for treatments you desire and for treatments you wish to be withheld. You can specify your decisions “yes or no” on:

• The use of equipment such as dialysis machines for your kidneys or ventilators to help you breathe

• The use of CPR if your heart or breathing stops – known as “do not resuscitate” if you choose not to have CPR applied

• Foods or liquids supplied through an IV or tube in your stomach should you be unable to eat

• Treatment for pain, suffering, nausea, or anxiety through drugs (comfort or palliative care)

• Donation of your organs after death

• Whether you want a burial or cremation

Choosing a Health Agent

The other vital component of the advance directive, in addition to your expressed desires, is naming an agent to carry out your decisions for you. The agent should be someone you trust implicitly to honor your wishes, whether it be a spouse, family member, or trusted friend. You also might consider naming an alternate agent should the primary agent be unavailable or unable to carry out the responsibility.

Your agent will be given a power of attorney to convey your wishes for accepting or withholding treatment. Your agent will obviously need a copy of your advance directive, as will your family members and trusted friends and associates, and certainly your primary physician and hospital of choice.

Do-Not-Resuscitate Directive

It’s important to note that the advance directive applies only to decisions in the hospital. Emergency medical personnel, such as ambulance attendants, are not bound by it. If you wish to restrict treatment by emergency personnel, then you can create what is called an out-of-hospital do-not-resuscitate (DNR) order. This will allow you to die a natural death on the way to the hospital, but it does not restrict the use of palliatives to ease your pain and suffering.