Dancing_Queen
Member
When my late husband was in the hospital dying, I was his health care surrogate. However, my form had the same wording as do most of them -- the person has to be "deemed" or "found" incompetent or some such. Well, the hospital decided that their psychiatrist had to make this determination -- to deem or find or whatever the documents said. And, even though the hospital required that consultants showed up within a given number of hours, it wasn't felt that psychiatric consultations were anywhere near a priority. After a week I was finally able to get a patient advocate to get a psychiatrist there. I can't tell you what my husband went through during that time because no one, including me, was allowed to sign anything for him and he was in a coma or what seemed to me to have been one. My documents now state that my health care surrogate, and only my health care surrogate, can determine my fitness; they also lay out in as great detail as I could come up with what should be done in what situation. In addition, they say that only my health care surrogate and not anyone from the hospital can make any determinations about my treatment. I suggest everyone think about this.