New York
Wills Lawyer.com

New York Living Will Types Of Life Sustaining Care

A living will is a set of instructions documenting a person's wishes about medical care intended to sustain life. It is used if a patient becomes terminally ill, incapacitated, or unable to communicate or make decisions. Everyone has the right to accept or refuse medical care. A living will protects the patient's rights and removes the burden for making decisions from family, friends, and physicians.

There are many types of life-sustaining care that should be taken into consideration when drafting a living will.
These include:

• The use of life-sustaining equipment (dialysis machines, ventilators, and respirators)
• Do not resuscitate orders; that is, instructions not to use CPR if breathing or heartbeat stops
• Artificial hydration and nutrition (tube feeding)
• Withholding of food and fluids
• Palliative/comfort care
• Organ and tissue donation.

It is also important to understand that a decision not to receive "aggressive medical treatment" is not the same as withholding all medical care. A patient can still receive antibiotics, nutrition, pain medication, radiation therapy, and other interventions when the goal of treatment becomes comfort rather than cure. This is called palliative care, and its primary focus is helping the patient remain as comfortable as possible. Patients can change their minds and ask to resume more aggressive treatment. If the type of treatment a patient would like to receive changes, however, it is important to be aware that such a decision may raise insurance issues that will need to be explored with the patient's health care plan. Any changes in the type of treatment a patient wants to receive should be reflected in the patient's living will.

Once a living will has been drawn up, patients may want to talk about their decisions with the people who matter most to them, explaining the values underlying their decisions. Most states require that the document be witnessed. Then it is advisable to make copies of the document, place the original in a safe, accessible place, and give copies to the patient's doctor, hospital, and next of kin. Patients may also want to consider keeping a card in their wallet declaring that they have a living will and where it can be found.