My mother and I talked to her doctor a year ago and he said we had to get an attorney to sign the DNR, but the form from the state required the doctor to sign it. She is 91 years old and has been through 3 strokes. What to do?
A doctor can sign a DNR or better a POLST Neither documents require a lawyer! The DNR just addresses one aspect of life saving measures. The POLST addresses several. You need to have either document with you (actually your mom) at ALL times. If you call 911 they have to have the document or they will do what they are trained to do.
I also forgot to mention that your mother should have a POLST form next to her bed and stuck to her refrigerator if she's at home. It tells anyone responding to a medical emergency exactly what level of care is being authorized in the event she (or you) can't tell them.
As I just put my mother on hospice care, I updated her POLST to reflect the DNR status and that she also is not to be given IV feeding or a feeding tube. Her original POLST was filled out two years ago when she first went into a nursing home, and it didn't specify those wishes because she wasn't in terrible condition at that time.
You absolutely need to make sure anyone who responds to her or sees her in a hospital knows about her desire for a DNR, because you don't want someone doing chest compressions on her and breaking her ribs in the process.
Do you have access to a Palliative care program? They came out last month and did all the paperwork for my mother, with her and I with them and in agreement. ( We are in MAryland), No Dr sign off, no lawyer, just the 3 of us. Tomorrow we will transition to Hospice, which they helped with. They are awesome if you can use them.
When my MIL went into LTC she signed a "My 5 Wishes" form (which is an advance care directive) and it includes a DNR. There is no MD signature on it but the admin of the NH did sign it. She is in MN.
States differ. IN California you can make out a POSLT in MD office and also make MD records saying you no longer wish to be a code. Then there is the advanced directive. Look it up for your state. It must be authorized after being made out. So I recommend looking up a POLST to see if your state, like my own California allows that. That means that hung in your own home emergency personnel do not have to perform CPR on you if that is your designation. That would get made out by your Mom's MD in his office with her there. Then look up "Advance Directive for State of (_________________). Easy to fill out and need a notary to witness. Or two witnesses in some states. Will let you know online. After that is signed and witnessed it is given to the doctor for his or her records. He or she needn't agree with it; it is set in stone what your wishes are. At 91 I am surprised that your Mom's doctor is not more cooperative in this and I might ask for a referral to a genrontologist.
I'm a bit confused. It was my understanding that the individual had to sign his/her own DNR; after all it IS his or life.
Is your mother unable to sign for herself? I'm assuming also that she hasn't executed a Living Will, which has end of life instructions.
The only time I know of when a doctor could sign a DNR was when my father was in the ER and then the hospital for the last time. He had a throat infection that was producing so much frothy stuff (for lack of a better term) that he had become cyanotic.
One of the treating physicians called me about 1 am and asked for a verbal rescission of Dad's DNR as he didn't expect him to survive the night b/c of being unable to breathe. He had already begun to turn blue.
I couldn't really drive out during the storm which had started earlier that night, so we agreed on an e-mailed rescission of the DNR.
And we also agreed that intubation wasn't an good option.
Neither documents require a lawyer!
The DNR just addresses one aspect of life saving measures.
The POLST addresses several.
You need to have either document with you (actually your mom) at ALL times.
If you call 911 they have to have the document or they will do what they are trained to do.
It's absurd to think you have to get an attorney to sign one. What right do they have to OK such a decision??
As I just put my mother on hospice care, I updated her POLST to reflect the DNR status and that she also is not to be given IV feeding or a feeding tube. Her original POLST was filled out two years ago when she first went into a nursing home, and it didn't specify those wishes because she wasn't in terrible condition at that time.
You absolutely need to make sure anyone who responds to her or sees her in a hospital knows about her desire for a DNR, because you don't want someone doing chest compressions on her and breaking her ribs in the process.
At 91 I am surprised that your Mom's doctor is not more cooperative in this and I might ask for a referral to a genrontologist.
Is your mother unable to sign for herself? I'm assuming also that she hasn't executed a Living Will, which has end of life instructions.
The only time I know of when a doctor could sign a DNR was when my father was in the ER and then the hospital for the last time. He had a throat infection that was producing so much frothy stuff (for lack of a better term) that he had become cyanotic.
One of the treating physicians called me about 1 am and asked for a verbal rescission of Dad's DNR as he didn't expect him to survive the night b/c of being unable to breathe. He had already begun to turn blue.
I couldn't really drive out during the storm which had started earlier that night, so we agreed on an e-mailed rescission of the DNR.
And we also agreed that intubation wasn't an good option.