Let your Living Will speak for you
Not something we like to think about - but would you like to be subjected to aggressive medical intervention should you be unable to speak for yourself following an accident or serious illness and there is no chance of recovery?
Would you like to be kept alive by unnatural means and end up in a vegetative state and live a life of no dignity, pain and total dependence?
You've perhaps spoken about getting a Living Will, but not done anything about it like most of us.
A very close friend's family is now facing this dilemma - I wrote about her a couple of weeks ago in one of my Cook with us posts.
She was on life support for three weeks after suffering cardiac arrest; then there was a glimmer of hope after she was weaned off the ventilator when her vitals improved slightly. Her condition however deteriorated to the point where she was in constant pain but no pain meds could be administered because of kidney and liver damage.
So a decision had to be reached by her family - not easy, but really the only humane thing they could do for her - and that is to sign a DNR form.
This is a Do Not Resuscitate order - self explanatory - and she now is being given pain medication to make her comfortable.
I do not think any of us would want our families to have to agonise over a decision like that!
Do not think this is something to file away for your senior years, it can happen at any age! No one wants to be left in an irreversible coma, and be in a vegetative state for a lengthy period with no hope of any improvement.
I certainly will be signing my own Living Will after seeing what happened to my friend.
Lastly, think about the following reasons to have a Living Will:
SPEAKS FOR YOU
Speaks for you when you are unable to make a life changing decision
YOUR DECISION
You make the decision on what medical intervention you would not want - the hospital has to place you on life support indefinitely if you have not stated this
LOVED ONES' AGONY
Relieves your loved ones of making a heart-breaking decision on your behalf - also avoids feuds between your loved ones
MEDICAL BILLS
Prevents crippling exorbitant medical costs for those you leave behind
PEACE OF MIND
Gives you peace of mind that your wishes will be granted
LEGAL FEES
Avoids costly legal fees which will be incurred when there’s disagreement about your care
Finally, once you’ve signed your Living Will, file it somewhere safely, give certified copies to your loved ones, and relieve your family of ever having to make a heart-wrenching decision when they’re already faced with tragedy!
Thank you for stopping by
Comments, upvotes & resteems all much appreciated :)
Copyright @lizelle - All Rights Reserved
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Accccckkkk. I upvoted you nothing! It's so automatic. What I really wanted to do was comment on this excellent post.
I've been through it with both my mother and father who did their due diligence and made their wishes legally known in plenty of time. But there were still things I learned.
Copies. Freaking lawyers here will charge you $25 per page for a legal order that you bought and paid for. So get a limited number of certified copies and file them with trusted family members. Then when the time comes, instead of giving the hospital a certified copy you tell them to copy it and sign that they copied the original order. They can do that easy.
Same thing works with death certificates. Everybody says they have to have one but they don't. THEY can copy and affirm that they made a true and accurate copy. Hard not to with today's technology. That requirement goes back to the days when things had to be hand copied.
I really appreciate that my parents made their treatment wishes very well known to us, so the only thing to do was to fight to respect their wishes.
Thanks Lizelle for a wonderful post.
Thank you for that @bigtom13, I will definitely be heeding your advice and get copies certified and given to our two sons as well.
My friend Linda thankfully passed away this afternoon, was given morphine the last couple of days after her family signed that form when her organs started failing, but it was about a month of hell for her on life support, whatever could go wrong, did just that! My friend really suffered, so absolutely tragic for her and her family!
My father suffered an aortic aneurysm so he was gone within a half hour, and spared any indignity and suffering. Mom has made it clear that she wants no machines but we need to get those Living Wills printed, signed and copies certified without any delay!
About steemit - I upvoted my friend and fellow TSE cook @birdsinparadise without thinking and it was worth nothing!
I am sorry for your loss, @lizelle. This post really resonated for me after some of the suffering I have seen. I remain eternally grateful that my mother had a living will which helped us make an awful decision when she was dying - 19 years ago.
I have selected this as today's #daily-nominated-post in the #teamsouthafrica discord channel.
Thank you so very much @fionasfavourites, it really is something we all need to take a serious look at! You've been through the agony so understand. Sorry to hear about your loss as well.
Living Will and an up to date Will needs to be assessed every few years of late, we did one two years ago and then advised to do again earlier this year.
Tough decisions have to be made, one thing we know from the minute we are born, we are going to die, so being prepared is sound reason for old and young.
Thank you for that Joan, no truer a word spoken! Will keep in mind about updating this from time to time, I really would not want to suffer like ny friend did. She was actually dead and they revived her, only to suffer 4 weeks on life support, really a living hell as they could not give her pain meds!
Great post @lizelle. I will also make a note to make that living will. I for sure don't want to be kept alive. I know where I am going and nothing have to keep me here artificially.
Thank you for your feedback @hope777, cannot agree with you more! www.dignitysa.org has a template one can use.
Excellent advise @lizelle. No one wants to be faced with these kinds of decisions in a time of crisis. My family knows what they need to do because it is written in a living will.
My friend did not want to be on those machines as she used to perform every time they had to hook her up when they had started weaning her off but then things went from bad to worse, thankfully she passed away last week but after much suffering!
I am so sorry for the loss of your friend. This is so sad that she had to suffer so much. Sending you hugs and prayers.
Thank you @cecicastor!