The State of Missouri, in accordance with the Federal Patient Self Detemination Act, upholds that any adult being of sound mind has the right to accept and/or refuse any or all medical/surgical treatments. You can do this by writing a "living will" in which you are unable to speak for yourself. These instructions can include the withholding and/or withdrawing of medical or surgically life-sustaining treatments.
You may also designate a person to speak on your behalf should you be unable to communicate. This person will be known as your health care proxy. This document is called a "Health Care Directive." Health Care Directives and Living Wills, are legal documents that are known as "Advanced Directive". These documents assure future health care choices for you.
PEMISCOT MEMORIAL HEALTH SYSTEMS respects your right to make medical and surgical decisions, but the presence or absence of an Advanced Directive is not required to received health care at our facility.
The following information is provided to you be PEMISCOT MEMORIAL HEALTH SYSTEMS to further explain Advanced Directives and other health care choices.
A Living Will is legal document that gives you the opportunity to inform others in advance of your wishes regarding health care in the event you are unable to speak for yourself. A Living Will does not need to be notarized, but must be witnessed by two individuals.
No. However, PEMISCOT MEMORIAL SYSTEMS is required by the Federal Patient Self Determination Act to give adult patients information about Living Will and Advance Directives. You will be asked to sign a waiver stating that PEMISCOT MEMORIAL HEALTH SYSTEMS has provided you with this information.
Let your values be your guide. Consider what is important to you regarding medical possibilities. With a Living Will, you can direct the course of treatment used to sustain your life. This can prevent family members from having to make critical medical decisions at an emotionally stressful time.
Missouri Law defines a “terminal condition” as an incurable, irreversible condition that without the use of life sustaining treatment will result in death in a short period of time.
Missouri Law also defines “permanently unconscious” as a condition lasting indefinitely without change in which thought, feeling, sensations, and awareness of self and environment are absent.
The following are most common procedures that are found in Living Wills.
- Tube Feeding and IV fluids: These are used to provide food, water, and/or medications through a tube placed in a vein, nose, throat, or the abdominal wall when patients can no longer eat by normal means.
- Mechanical Ventilators/Respirators: These are machines used to assist or control breathing. The ventilator can help pull a patient through a serious illness. However, in some case breathing cannot be restored and a patient becomes permanently dependent on the machine.
- Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR): These are special mesasures taken to restore stoped breathing or a stopped heart beat. These could include manual pressure to the chest, the use of electrical shock, IV medication, and mechanical ventilation.
Having a Living Will will enable you to speak your wishes in the use of these and other medical procedures.
A DNR is an order written while the patient is in the hospital that allows you to refuse attempts to restore your heartbeat. A Living Will is not the same as a do not resuscitate order. In the event of a medical emergency, rescue personnel will do whatever they are able to do to save your life. If it is later determined that you have an illness, disease, or injury, or experience extreme mental deterioration, such as there being no reasonable expectation of recovering or regaining a meaningful quality fo life then the physician can consider your Living Will for withdrawal of whatever life- sustaining procedures that may have been started.
A Living Will does not mean that your comfort needs will be ignored. Every effort will be made at PEMISCOT MEMORIAL HEALTH SYSTEMS to meet your physical, emotional, and spiritual needs and those of your loves ones.
You may fill out the form included in this packet. You can also obtain copies at PEMISCOT MEMORIAL HEALTH SYSTEMS or your local doctor’s office. Help may also be obtained from your local lawyer and/or your State Attorney General’s Office.
Most Living wills today have a proxy designation clause. This allows you to appoint someone to make your medical decision for you if you are unable to communicate. You may name that person and the will make decision with your doctor. After you write your proxy’s name on the Living Will you must also sign your name again in the presences of two witnesses.
We encourage you to discuss your wishes with your family and/or your health care proxy and your doctor, and then gives copies of your Living Will to them. DO NOT place it in a safety deposit box. Try to always bring a copy with you to the hospital. When traveling it may be helpful to carry a copy with you in your wallet, luggage or glove box. A wallet card is provided for you on this packet.
You can always change or cancel your Advanced Directive. This can be done by informing your family members, health care proxy and your doctor that your wishes have changed.
Yes, this can be done. Assistance will be provided by PEMISCOT MEMORIAL HEALTH SYSTEMS health care personnel should this need arise.
This is legal document that in the event of death, allows a person to donate their organs and tissues to be transplanted for the benefit of another person who needs them.
Anyone eighteen years of age or older may become a donor. Individuals under age 18 may also be donors, but need to have parental or legal guardian consent. If you donate your organs or tissues, an organ recovery agency will evaluate your medical suitability at the time of death.
Organs that can be donated include the heart, kidneys, liver, pancreas, and lungs. Organs can only be removed after establishing brain death. The donor organs must be maintained on a ventilator until the transplant team arrives to remove the organs.
Tissues that can be donated include the eyes, skin, bone, heart valves, and many other support and protective tissues. Tissues are also taken after the donor dies, but a ventilator is not required to maintain tissues until the transplant team arrived.
No, However, PEMISCOT MEMORIAL HEALTH SYSTEMS is legally required to provide all adult patients with information about Organ and Tissue donations. You will be asked to sign a waiver stating the PEMISCOT MEMORIAL HEALTH SYSTEMS has provided you and/or your family with this information.
You may fill out the form included in this packet. You can also obtain copies from PEMISCOT MEMORIAL HEALTH SYSTEMS or your local doctor's office. The are also available through the Eye and Kidney Bank, and several sources. The most commonly found form is on the back of one's driver's license
You may write whatever instruction you want on your Organ and Tissues Donor form, and then you must have 2 people, eighteen years or older, witness your signatures as you sign your name. Organ and Tissue Donor forms do NOT have to be notarized. Once the Organ and Tissue Donor forms have been signed we do encourage you to put them in a safe place, however, not in a safety deposit box. We encourage you to discuss your wishes with your family and your physician and give copies of your Organ and Tissues form to them.
You can always change or cancel you Organ and Tissue Donor form. This can be done by informing your family members and your doctor that your wishes changed.
Absolutely not. No consideration for organ donation will even begin until all possible efforts to save your life have failed. The criteria to determine brain death are very strict. Brain death can only be declared by Physicians that are not involved in the donation process.
Brain death is a medically accepted condition where brain function has permanently ceased and the heart and lungs continue to function with the use of artificial life support.
No. The doctor’s family and donor hospital are not responsible for organ donation expense. The cost will be absorbed by the recipient, their insurance, or in some cases the federal government. Hospital expenses incurred prior to the donor’s brain death and funeral expenses remain the responsibility of the donor’s family.
No, the removal of organs is a sterile surgical procedure. The physical condition of the body remains intact for burial arrangement
We encourage you to talk with a clergyman if you desire guidance. Protestant, Catholic and Jewish religious leaders worldwide support organ and tissue donation on the basis that the donation is essentially a “gift of life” to another.
For further information and assistance you may wish to discuss these questions with your family and/or doctor. The personnel here at PEMISCOT MEMORIAL HELATH SYSTEMS can assist you with any questions you may have, or refer to another who is qualified to assist you.