|
I've managed the estates of two family members, one with an AD and one without. My mother had one, and when the time came, the four of us kids met and agreed the conditions of the directive had been met. It was a terrible, weighty decision we took, but the existence of her words through the AD made it significantly easier to assure ourselves that her wishes were being fulfilled.
My cousin had no AD when he was in a motorcycle accident that left him brain dead but still alive, on a ventilator. In addition to a massive head injury, he had a compound fracture of his leg. A couple days after the accident, a doctor called me to ask for permission to operate on it, a move that I resisted as pointless. The doc was concerned that any further delay would render the leg unsaveable. Since we no AD, and I lived clear across the country, it was hard to argue what the patient would want. His girlfriend, who he lived with, couldn't deal with any of it. After 9 days in the ICU, during which he was never responsive in any way, the docs finally took him off the ventilator and he died. The hospital bill was $500K. An AD would have alleviated a lot of suffering and expense.
|