Perhaps you have talked with your loved ones about your wishes relative to medical decisions and life sustaining treatment should ill health or an accident occur, but in many circumstances, that will not be enough. To ensure that your wishes for the last days of your life are carried out, you can execute a Durable Power of Attorney for Healthcare and Living Will Declaration, sometimes referred to as a health care proxy. A DPOA HC & LW Declaration will authorize your chosen agent to make healthcare decisions on your behalf only when you lack the capacity to make them yourself. Your agent is empowered to discuss the options with your doctor and make the best choice based on your wishes. A DPOA HC & LW Declaration can address issues such as:

• Organ Donation
• Continuation of Life Sustaining Treatment
• Artificial Nutrition and Hydration
• Administration of Pain Control Medications
• Living Will Instructions
• Hygiene Care

While it is more common for the elderly to contemplate the execution of the documents, it is recommended for anyone over the age of 18. Preparation can make the most difficult time in your loved ones’ lives easier because they will know what your wishes are and your designated agent can carry them out for you. Besides the emotional toll, the financial burden of hospital care on your estate and family may be large. For the first three months that an individual remains in a vegetative state, the cost is estimated at $149,200, with long term care in the range of $350-$500 per day. (For more information, see The New England Journal of Medicine’s special article “Medical Aspects of the Persistent Vegetative State“). Placing those wishes in a customized legal form can prevent your loved ones from needing to petition the court to fulfill your final directives.

Watch out for a hospital’s generic DPOA HC & LW Declaration forms at admission-they may invalidate your custom forms!

While hospitals reasonably encourage patients to sign generic forms electing a health care agent at admission, these forms may not address your specific instructions like a custom form will. The brief and sometimes stressful moment of admission is not the best time to make such important advance directive decisions. With a valid, custom health care power of attorney in place, you empower your loved ones to make the tough decisions knowing you trusted them to make the right decision based on your wishes and the situation presented.

Additionally, if you have executed a custom DPOA HC & LW Declaration prior to your rushed signing of the generic hospital form, the execution of the new form revokes your carefully constructed DPOA HC & LW Declaration and replaces it with the generic hospital form.

Effective January 1, 2014, an amendment to RSA 137-J:2, XIII (2005) changes the New Hampshire Advance Directives statute. An experienced estate planning attorney can provide you with the options available under the law and can customize your advance directive as you see fit.