UKC

Been meaning to do these for ages, and trying to get round to it now. Not for any pressing health/age reason, just think everyone should do one!

Compassion in Dying is a site I'm looking at, but has anyone done them, or anything similar, and got any hints or other resources that will help with it?

In reply to JayPee630:
I have lasting powers of attorney for somebody. One is health & welfare, the other is financial.

It gives the authority to make decisions, deal with hmrc and banks etc for somebody no longer able to make decisions.

Needs to be arranged in advance while the person is still capable of making the decision to set up lasting powers of attorney.

https://www.gov.uk/make-decisions-for-someone

In reply to JayPee630:

I think my parents both did that for-with each other when my mum was alive, as it turned out it didn't need to be implemented.

In reply to JayPee630:

I started writing one early in the year using this template, but haven't got round to finalising it/ getting it witnessed yet.
http://www.danetremedicalpractice.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Advance-...

and tweaking it for a one specific situations I've witnessed at work
...young patient had a cardiac arrest from undiagnosed arrhythmia... we got her back, but she was severely brain damaged...however she was still fitted with a Defib pacemaker and is now living out her time in residential care for brain injured patients, and whenever she arrest the defib just bounces her straight back to life... it's just plan horrific to think I have played a role in that situation along the way!!

In reply to SAF:
I feel for you, that's terrible, I work in medical field too, and that's exactly the type of thing happening I want to cover. I suspect there's things I can't cover though like severe strokes that leave me incapable of any movement.

In reply to JayPee630:

This is how I've tried to cover those situations
"If my mental functions become permanently impaired with no likelihood of improvement, or is impaired for a period in excess of 12 months, and the impairment is so severe that I no longer have the mental capacity to understand what is happening to me and my physical condition means that medical treatment would be needed to keep me alive, I do not wish to be kept alive by medical treatment. I wish medical treatment to be limited to keeping me comfortable and free from pain and, I refuse all other medical treatment, including antibiotic treatment, assisted feeding, artificial ventilation, ICD and CPR."

In reply to JayPee630:

I have one in place - I adapted the wording from text supplied by my brother's solicitor for his will - but the clear signals along the way were that you can never be entirely sure it'll be implemented when it comes to the crunch, partly because there will often be complicating and extenuating circumstances. At the outset my GP and my solicitor played pass-the-parcel on the wording, each saying that for professional reasons they would probably find it hard to guarantee unqualified support at the key moment. And both were emphatic that even in circumstances that did clearly fall within the expressed terms of the 'living will', they'd still want to be certain of the full, prior, informed consent not just of my immediate next-of-kin, who also holds power of attorney, but of all near relations. It's a bit like organ donation where the donor's intention to donate, however explicit and however long-standing, needs to be backed up by general family consent. Happily my relations are all of the same mind. Or maybe they just want to see the back of me as soon as may be ...

In reply to SAF:

Thanks SAF, that sounds like what I want. Well, when I say want...

In reply to SAF:


I'm not sure that this would cover many situations since someone with severe brain damage may still understand something about what is happening to them.

In reply to Nicola:

There are several other sections to the document (see the link above) that was just one section quoted in relation to what jaypee asked.

In reply to JayPee630:

As soon as we both had kids (20's) my wife and I and my sister and husband made wills that we would each look after each others family should both parents die.
That clause had a time limit on it obviously, but was still in the wills until we reviewed them a few years back.

I'm pretty organised as is my family. My sister and I have a Will and POA for our mother, mother (79) has her will and has has also pre-paid for her funeral.
(when my father died we bought a family plot and a large headstone (with lots of space for additional inscriptions.

I think everything is pretty much sorted for my kids now in their late 20's 30's

In reply to SAF:

She was severely brain damaged...however she was still fitted with a Defib pacemaker and is now living out her time in residential care for brain injured patients, and whenever she arrest the defib just bounces her straight back to life... it's just plan horrific to think I have played a role in that situation along the way!!

It does seem cruel, but perhaps it starts to make a little more sense to keep people alive in these cases when advances in the likes of stem cell research etc gives hope to people that there might actually be a chance of restoring brain, or spinal capabilities in the 'near' future.