Day 9 in the countdown to an end to the COVID-19 panic.

[BoSoxGal]

Your situation reflects the desires of most people, LJ - it’s certainly what I saw most often in assisting clients with drafting healthcare directives/proxies as part of overall estate planning. I should add that many clients who came in the door were only looking at drafting a will and it was my counsel that convinced them to get healthcare directives in place; this is some of the work I’m most proud of in my legal career.

DNR is appropriate for many folks in a particular health condition, but folks in reasonably good health and not very elderly should certainly be considered for a full code especially if that code occurs in hospital, where you have at least the 20% chance of resuscitation. The key is to have either a healthcare proxy you can trust to make determinations on your behalf with information and guidance provided by doctors, or to have those wishes spelled out clearly in documents that the doctors can rely upon to follow your wishes in these matters.

Of course in this pandemic considering the fast approaching reality of not enough ventilators and too many people needing them, we are all going to be at the mercy of the medical ethicists in each hospital who will decide - based on our overall health condition and years of remaining life expectancy - whether we get that chance or die under palliative care.

[Crackpot]

My wife is a palliative care nurse and it you wouldn’t believe the lengths people will go to keep someone alive on an unreasonable hope. It is also amazing the lengths some doctors will go to supply unreasonable hope.

[Econoline]

Good post BSG...

X2