Local hospital refused to comply with a friends durable power of attorney and life support directive concerning her spouse. He had been unable to awaken from an induced coma for over 2 weeks after a series of brutal surgeries, mostly due to diabetic complications. The decision was made by his spouse to terminate life support. The hospital refused citing a 48 hour hold on that order in the event any other relatives might surface with objections. My wife was there as a family friend but quickly changed gear and stepped up as an ombudsman for patient rights. This is her day job with the Agency on Aging and shes very well versed in patient rights. Once the administrators became aware of her status they miraculously appeared with a waiver for the 48 hour hold and asked her to sign as one of the required 4 independent witnesses. She refused. Somehow they quickly managed to find 4 signers for the waiver and removed life support. While our friend was in the process of bodily shutdown the copies of the waiver the hospital provided were examined. The hospital had done everything wrong, not following the outlined steps in sequence and even had the patient and next of kin names in the wrong places on the form rendering the whole thing null and void. The net result of this is the man was kept alive another 30 some hours beyond the point life support should have been removed, contrary to his wishes and very clear legally binding written instruction that was in place prior to his hospitalization. Somebody got some splainin to do.
Posted on: Tue, 12 Aug 2014 17:03:26 +0000
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