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What are the alternatives if the patient is NOT able to make medical
decision?
There are seven ways that someone
else could make decisions about your medical care if you were unable to make
them yourself. The types of
decisions that they person can make for you, and the conditions, are stated
in the law.
- If You Have A Living Will - The living will alone has a very
limited scope; it covers only life sustaining
procedures where death from a terminal condition is imminent or the
patient is in a persistent vegetative state
- life sustaining procedures means:
- any medical procedure, treatment, or intervention that utilizes
mechanical or other artificial means to sustain, restore, or
supplant a spontaneous vital function; there is no reasonable expectation
that, to a reasonable degree of medical certainty, a medical
procedure will not prevent or reduce the deterioration of the
health or impending death of the person.
- Death from a terminal condition is imminent
means:
- An incurable condition caused by injury,
disease, or illness which, to a reasonable degree of medical
certainty, makes death imminent and from which, despite the
application of life sustaining procedures, there can be no
recovery.
- In a persistent vegetative state means:
- The patient is not conscious and not aware of
her environment, is not able to interact with others, and there is no
reasonable expectation of recovery within a medically appropriate
period.
- If You have A Written Advance Directive -
Including one or both of:
- Appointment of a health care agent
with the power to:
- Get information and records about the
patient's physical or mental health
- Employ or discharge health care providers
- Authorize admission or discharge from a hospital, hospice, nursing
home, adult home, or other medical care facility
- Consent to providing, withholding, or withdrawing life
sustaining procedures
- If the Advance Directive includes specific instructions or limitations,
the Agent must follow them.
- The Agent must base all decisions on instructions in
the document and the patient's wishes
as otherwise known to agent.
- Health care instructions - The
Advance Directive can include exact instructions for specific
situations.
- If You Have An Oral advance
directive - Instructions
the patient has told to her doctor and the doctor has recorded in the
medical record.
- If You Have A Valid Living Will or Power
Of Attorney that names someone to make your health care decisions in
your place for health care decisions that was written and signed before the current Maryland law was passed.
- If You Have A Living Will or Advance
Directive made in another state if
it was validly
executed according to the law of that state.
- A Surrogate decision
maker - If there is no
living will or advance directive, certain people, including close
relatives, have the authority to make necessary medical care decisions.
- A Court Appointed Guardian of the person -
Guardianship is a court proceeding
which can be both expensive and prolonged. See Guardianship
of Disabled Adults - What it is, how it works.
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