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Advance Health Care Directive

Advance Health Care Directive

Advance Health Care Directive / Living Will Lawyer

You are injured in a car accident and rushed to the hospital unconscious. After emergency treatment, the doctors determine they can keep you alive on a ventilator, but you may never regain consciousness. They know there is some brain damage, but they can't say for sure how much.

Would you want to be kept alive on a ventilator under those circumstances? If not, how would the doctors know?

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An advance health care directive, also called a living will or health care power of attorney, allows you to have control over decisions about your own health care when you are physically or mentally unable to make them yourself.

The advance health care directive is now the legally recognized format for a living will in California. It replaces the Natural Death Act Declaration. The Advance Health Care Directive can do more than a living will because it can be used if any condition prevents you from making decisions yourself, not just in cases when you are in a coma or are terminally ill.

Our estate planning attorney will suggest issues to think about before we create a health care directive for you, including:

  • What types of end of life care do or don't you want?
  • What are your preferences regarding diagnostic testing, surgery, cardiopulmonary resuscitation, and organ donation?
  • If you are unable to make health care decisions yourself, who will you designate as your agent?
  • Who would authorities contact first if you were in an emergency?

After we reflect your wishes in the advanced health care directive, it is important to inform others, including the agent you designate, your doctor, the hospital you are most likely to use, and anyone who might be contacted if you suffered a medical emergency.

To learn more about advance health care directives and other estate planning tools, please contact Manassau Law Offices in San Jose, California, to arrange a initial consultation.