Any know about Living Wills?

[Stormy Peak]

I'm 60 years old and figure I probably need to up date my 15 year old WILL and also do a Living Will.

However... while I think (with having done some research) I can do my own Living Will, I cannot find anything via Google (haven't search YouTube yet)...about what to do after it's signed. Does the local hospital get a copy, or your doctor, or a family member?

My Will is easy to find, my family knows where it is...it's not like an urgent document to have as soon as a person dies, it can wait a few days.

However, a Living Will...that needs to be shown to whatever hospital, or doctor who is treating you "now" Such as if there is a do not resuscitate clause, or a no blood transplant clause (given there are a few religions that forbid that), or no major surgeries or say someone wants to order no life support at all, or for only a x-amount of time.

Anyone have an answer to this? Who gets the document so it can be put in use as soon as possible if someone ends up in the hospital.

Stormy

[Tammy Stawicki]

My doctor has an end of life planning section in mychart that lets me put in some information, though not nearly as detailed as I'd like. If you have a mychart (or similar online health portal) where you are you could look there or try reaching out to the local hospital system to see what sort of system they have in place. My actual living will I gave to family members figuring they'd be the ones making medical decisions if I wasn't able to. While somethings like DNR obviously might be needed right away before you can get a hold of family, a lot of other stuff can still be useful on a delay, like if you want to be kept alive on life support. This was like 20 years back now, but we did need to use my grandmother's living will at the end of her life and my grandfather just brought a copy to the hospital when it was clear we were going to need it, but I'm not clear if more efficient systems are now in place.

[Stormy Peak]

Thanks for the information.

Stormy

[Lori Hamill]

I made sure that my primary especially has a copy of my living will and since I'm giving my body to Science after any viable organs are donated my primary also has a copy of the body donation papers. When I have to go into the hospital (I've been in 4 in the last few years) I have given them copies also.

[Stormy Peak]

I will be giving my siblings copies, so there won't be any doubt. My oldest sister is very sentimental, but also she is a Christian who doesn't go to any church and has some, what I consider, odd ideas with her beliefs. I do not want her having any say in what happens to me. I have in the past listed my younger sister or my older brother as people who could make decisions. But now that I'm older and given my family's dynamics have changed a little in the past 15 years, I feel like I need to give exact instructions if I should have a medical emergency.

I think my younger sister kind of falls in line with what I want and wouldn't have a problem pulling the plug knowing I would want that rather than be in a coma for years. My older sister...she would demand I be kept alive...even knowing what I would want.

Lori, I hope you don't have any more hospital stays for a long time to come.

Stormy