Whether you're 18 or 80, documenting your health care wishes today means your family won't have to make heart-wrenching decisions tomorrow.
We encourage everyone to talk with their family, their friends and their doctor about their health care wishes. Know the options. Decide what's right for you. And be sure to put it in writing.
The American Hospital Association (AHA) now has a website that helps you put your directives in writing. By clicking here or following the link below, you will access resources to help you put your wishes about end-of-life care into advance directives.
AHA’s “Put it in Writing”
In North Carolina, a living will is a document that tells others that you want to die a natural death if you are diagnosed as terminally ill or incurably sick or in a persistent vegetative state from which you will not recover.
In a living will, you direct your doctor to not use heroic treatments that will delay your dying—for example, by using a breathing machine (respirator or ventilator)—or to stop such treatments if they have been started. You can also direct your doctor not to begin or to stop giving you food and water through a tube (artificial nutrition or hydration).
In North Carolina, you can name a person to make medical care decisions for you if you later become unable to decide for yourself. This person is called your “health care agent.” In the legal document you name who you want your agent to be. You can say what medical treatment you would want and what you would not want. Your agent then knows what choices you would make.
You should choose someone you trust and discuss your wishes with the person before you put it in writing.
As a health care provider, Stanly Regional Medical Center recognizes the importance of patient choices with regards to treatment. We encourage patients and their representatives to inform us when a patient has an advance directive, i.e., durable health care power of attorney or living will. It is important that you be aware of the policies of Stanly Regional Medical Center with regards to your advance directives:
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