By QBC - Medicare DNR forms

Quilting brings calm

The Medicare DNR forms also have a section on full, selective, or comfort care. The nurse told me to have their forms placed on the refrigerator - I think the AL puts them on the back of specific cabinets in the kitchen.

Here are my comments and then a question: Their doctor discussed the DNR part with them, but not the second section. I think he may have copied the check marks from last year or made assumptions from comments they have made. I didn’t see what was marked until we left the doctors office, but I was in the room for the appointment,

Mom wants DNR. Her second section is marked comfort care. I know she wants no major stuff done such as intubated or feeding tubes or cancer treatment if she had cancer. but I also know she would want infections treated with antibiotics etc. I understand her feelings and am in agreement.

Dad told the doctor he wanted his heart restarted if it stopped ‘ if they could fix it’. His second section is marked full treatment including a trial period feeding tube. That’s not in line with what he’s told me, the nurse at the AL etc. His lungs aren’t strong enough for surgeries, he’s said he doesn’t see the need to go to his cancer doctor for monitoring of the thyroid cancer nodules in his lungs, and I know he doesn’t want a feeding tube or to be intubated. However he is the first one in line to go to urgent care due to shoulder pain, being fatigued, etc. Given the various terminal illnesses he has, I don’t think things would be ‘fixable’ if his heart did stop.

My questions: what am I supposed to make of this form vs their extraneous conversational comments and - would my medical power of attorney and my knowledge of their true wishes override this if they were incapacitated physically or cognitively?

towhee

What my lawyer told me was that the MPOA was not in force unless a person was unconscious or the doctor felt they were not mentally competent to make their own decisions. Whether the documents can be overridden I do not know.

QBC, Adding By to your screen name makes it clearer. Good idea!

Quilting brings calm

https://alzconnected.org/discussion/comment/168607#Comment_168607

In practice the incapacitated clause of the MPOA seems to be happenstance in its application. Doctor’s offices routinely accept my authority to call on my parent’s behalf to make or cancel appointments, request medication changes, send patient portal messages etc. The hospitals seem to be a mix depending on what’s going on at the time.

CanyonGal

Hospice told me I could fill out the DNR. The nurse said my mother was not competent and as her surrogate I could sign the form. She was at stage 5, and really was clueless about medical treatment, why she went to the hospital, and talking nonsense to whoever was within earshot.