Who is there for you in an emergency?

If you were in an accident and unconscious, who would you want medical or emergency personnel to try to contact for information and decision-making? If you’re married, what if your spouse was in the same accident? Or how would this stranger even know that you’re married?

It’s not pleasant to think about, but designating and registering someone to make medical decisions for you when you can’t is something every adult should do. And by “adult,” I’m even including 18-year-olds living at home or going off to college.

If the person treating you doesn’t know your wishes to the contrary, they will turn to state “next of kin” rules. These are based on traditional notions of who you “belong” to, not necessarily who knows you best and cares about you. In Virginia, that means spouse first, and if you’re not married or your spouse isn’t available, then your adult children. If you don’t have adult children or they aren’t willing and available, then your parents, then your adult siblings, then your closest blood relations. Only if they can find NO blood relations available and willing to step in will they turn to an unrelated person who “has exhibited special care and concern for the patient.” In other words, your second-cousin-once-removed who you’ve only met once in your life has legal preference over your longtime partner, roommate, or best friend.

The good news is that you have the right to decide for yourself who you trust most to handle such difficult situations, and in what order. You can choose your best friend ahead of your elderly or estranged parents, and your cousin who is a nurse living nearby ahead of your 19-year-old child going to college hundreds of miles away. And you can change your selection whenever you like.

The documents you can use to make these choices go by a confusing variety of names, including durable power of attorney, advance medical directive, living will, HIPAA release, and agent for health care decisions. Other designations that may overlap but don’t cover all forms of emergency medical decision-making include durable Do Not Resuscitate orders, organ donor designation and registry, general power of attorney, and power of bodily disposition. You can find free samples of most of these documents, but without expert guidance, chances are high that you will struggle to figure out which ones you really need, how to make them legally effective, and how to make them findable for emergency and medical professionals.

That’s where, as an attorney who regularly drafts these documents for clients, I can help you sort this all out. I can answer your questions, incorporate your preferences into the right forms, provide witness and notary services, and guide you through putting your completed documents in the Advance Health Care Directives Registry.

In honor of parents anxiously sending their young adult children off to college (but available to anyone), I’m offering a special back-to-school flat rate of $100 in August and September to check this off your “I know I need to do that” list. This includes:

• Up to 30 minutes of consultation about your needs, preferences, and questions;
• Completed advance medical directive document, including the designation of one or more agents for health care decisions, HIPAA release, and any desired limitations or directions for treatment;
• Witness and notary for signing (additional travel charges apply if done in person);
• Detailed instructions for setting up an account with the Advance Health Care Directives Registry (if available in your state) and uploading your completed documents.

If you’d like to take advantage of this offer, you can use this link to set up a brief consultation to make sure your documents are just right for you. Flat-rate packages including financial powers of attorney or medical directives for the whole family are also available.