DNR (Do Not Resuscitate); Health Directives (or Directions); Living Will

OUR COUNSEL AS A RESULT OF OUR NEAR-DEATH EXPERIENCE...GET THESE FORMS FILLED OUT NOW WHEN YOU CAN THINK CLEARLY......

At Barnes, the Social Worker brought us some necessary forms called Health Decisions, sometimes also called Health Directives.  Because John's first surgery was life-threatening and an emergency procedure, many normal admitting processes were bypassed.  That was one of the reasons that he is listed as John Knoblock with a "k" instead of the correct Knobloch with an "h".  These Health Decision forms were brought to us before his second or third surgery.  He needed to fill them out but was not capable and I could help with them of course but it was very difficult for him to think appropriately.  Together, and with the Social Worker's help, we did fill them out.  They then needed to be notarized and the social worker was to arrange for that but somehow that never occurred.

When we got home, our Home Health Nurse asked some of the same questions but now it was about an out of hospital DNR.  Eventually, yesterday I think, she brought back the Do Not Resuscitate Request form.  These forms ask questions about what to do in case your heart stops when you are NOT in the hospital.  Its main point is "if my heart stops or I stop breathing, no medical procedure to restart breathing or heart functioning will be instituted."

Natasha, our oldest daughter, talked to us about CPR.  Outside of the hospital, CPR very rarely has positive outcomes.  Studies have shown that because of lack of oxygen to the brain, most people who have had out of hospital CPR have poor quality of life.  We talked to our doctors about this and they assured us that this is NOT true in the hospital.  In ICU, particularly, there is always an anesthesiologist present and in the case of a person stopping breathing or their heart stopping, that almost immediately and always within three minutes, a tracheotomy is performed so that the body gets oxygen quickly and no brain damage occurs.  This is the difference quite simply between in hospital and of hospital procedures and outcomes.

John and I are quite clear that we do not want "heroics"; we don't want to live on a ventilator or with other advanced life support.  In the hospital, especially when we came to the crossroads of that third surgery, we were quite skeptical.  We knew that it was the last of any such major interventions for John.  In fact, in retrospect, we have wondered if we should have allowed it.  The doctors did not see it as heroics, but I had never heard of such a procedure and it sounded totally bizarre to me.  Our doctors there, however, knew it was their last stop-gap measure to fight the infection in order to save his life.  Some doctors, even now, think it might not have been productive or necessary and we sometimes wonder about it for the simple reason that now John's primary barrier is his weak abdominal wall where the muscle was removed.

All this is just to say to those of you who do not have a Health Directive or a Do Not Resuscitate Request or have not made provision for organ donation, that now is the time to consider this and to ACT.  We had to  complete those forms under a difficult and almost impossible situation.  How much wiser, simpler, and prudent to do this simple task when you can think clearly without complicating factors. 

A Living Will document is similar, too....check it out as well...and consider organ donation, too!

Look online.  Hospitals have these forms.  Lawyers have them.  Most health agencies do.  We were just advised to spread the word and to share from own difficult experience so that some of you will take the opportunity and do it now and not wait until later.