[Sca-cooks] A small OT lecture from Auntie 'Lainie

[Avraham haRofeh of Sudentur]

On Sat, 20 Dec 2003 19:33:06 -0800, lcm at efn.org wrote:
> My small lecture is this: force yourself to sit down and think about what
> you would want to happen if you were in an accident, seriously ill, or
> such
> situation. What do you want to happen? What do you not want to happen? Sit
> down with your family and loved ones and TELL THEM what you want. And then
> put it in writing. It is fairly easy to put together a living will and a
> medical power of attorney. Your doctor's office can tell you where to get
> the papers.

Huzzah! Three Cheers! And *THANK YOU*! I've been ranting on the same subject 
(not in this forum) for YEARS.

I will add that if your family is in ANY WAY "non-traditional", if there is 
anyone outside traditional definitions of family that you want to have 
access to you when you're ill, specify it. There is a case currently pending 
in Maryland of a gay man who was barred from access to his partner of 
thirteen years by the University of Maryland hospital as "non-family", 
despite the family's agreement and despite the existence of a living will 
(which they did not have with them - so you should also keep a copy with you 
if you travel). The hospital has been censured by JCAHO and AMA for ethics 
violations - did you know that the AMA says that a patient's "family" is 
WHOEVER SHE SAYS IT IS, and the hospital has to honor that?

****************
Avraham haRofeh
     (mka Randy Goldberg MD)
Random Tag: ASCII and ye shall receive.