Hello, I’m a young man with marginal health insurance through work. Every time I need to get something done at the doctor, like a fractured hand or a cold, they continue to refer me elsewhere and don’t know what to do. I am billed up the wazoo for money I don’t have. The health industry and anyone in it, specifically ER rooms, are as lowlife as prison guards. They are evil people.
My question is, is there a way I can order a do not recessitate order, or something so these people can not do anything to me? If I am unconscious I don’t want an ambulance to get me. They are a racket. And in this day and age we just cannot afford anything health wise, with the cost of living, etc. so, where do I need to go to get this done?
You have the right to refuse any and all medical treatment. If you are unconscious a DNR may or may not stop someone from trying to revive you, depending on the circumstances. I have found ER staff to be extremely helpful in an emergency. A cold is not considered an emergency.
I don’t think a DNR will do you a damn bit of good if the medical personnel treating you don’t know about it. And if your health issue is severe enough that you are both unconscious and an ambulance is even under consideration, a paramedic is not going to spend time tracking down a piece of paper that may or may not exist – they’re just going to get you into the ambulance and to the ER. If you place one on file with all of the hospitals you could conceivably end up at, the doctors there will follow it, but again, they’ll only be looking at your file after the emergency has passed, not when they are up to their elbows in your potential impending death.
Speaking of, you’re actually willing to die to stick it to the healthcare man? You know that’s what a DNR order means, right?
Based on a simple, straightforward reading, DNR won’t help you if you get in a car crash and break five ribs, both legs, and fracture your skull. It’s only about resuscitation, not limb-setting or wound-binding or anything else.
You can presumably release yourself AMA (against medical advice) the moment you’re able to walk and talk, but you could have DNR tattooed across your chest, forehead, and ass and it wouldn’t prevent them from moving you out of your car, setting your fractures, and otherwise tending to you.
DNR orders are not for someone like you. Check with your HR department to see the best way to use your insurance. Consider changing jobs. Or look into Obamacare.
A DNR order says simply that if you are in a healthcare facility and your heart stops, you are not to have CPR or other “life-saving” measures. I’ve heard of young nurses and doctors in perfect health getting them, because they know what CPR really does to a person, and that the actual resuscitation rate is very low (less than 5%) and most of those people do not recover anyway.
A doctor or lawyer can tell you more. Contrary to most people’s opinions, it DOES NOT mean “do not treat”.
What you want is something like a MOST Form (here is what we use in NC http://www.polst.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/NC-MOST-Form.pdf. Make sure the least amount of stuff is checked, laminate it and carry it around on yourself in a conspicuous place at all times like a necklace.
USCDiver, MD (ER Physician, the most evil of them all!)
I think you want something we call an Advance Directive. An Advance Directive is paperwork that you’ve filled out previously that states what kind of treatment you do /don’t want done to you in the event you aren’t able to make those choices yourself at that time. As said above, you’d want to have it in a conspicuous place. Also I belive DNR status has to be reconfirmed every time you come to the hospital. It’s not like the organ donor registry where you can call a number, someone looks you up and says you’re on the list.
I, through my doctor, have completed and keep on file an Advanced Directive. It very specifically covers how I want to be treated in extreme medical conditions. My gf, PCP, and attorney all have copies. I redo the forms every few years so that they are current.
I also have sometimes declined medical advise. Healthcare should be a process you go through using all that is available to you. Think of your doctors’ statements as suggestions, not orders. Your doctor works for you.
If you do so be careful about calling the rescue squads.
When my parents had their do not resuscitate documents I was talking to a good friend of mine who ran the local rescue service. He told me to not call them if we thought they were close to going. By state law once they are called, and arrived on site, they were obligated to use all means possible to resuscitate.
This sounds fishy - not that he didn’t tell you that, but that he’s ethically suspect for doing so. Advanced Directives for health care (the do-not-resusticate order is one type of an advanced directive) are recognized by federal law (the Patient Self-Determination Act of 1991) and while there are different laws and requirements in each state, if a DNR meets that state’s requirements, there’s no reason it shouldn’t be honored.
Unfortunately, there’s really no penalty for disregarding the patient’s wishes expressed through the DNR.
Hodge and Saitta, “What are the consequences of disregarding a “do not resuscitate directive” in the United States?” Med Law (2013) 32:441-458
So your parents have the constitutional right to make decisions regarding their health care (e.g. a DNR) but there isn’t grounds for legal redress if the jerk who runs the local rescue service disregards their wishes. The one wrinkle in this is that the states have varying requirements for what constitutes a legitimate DNR, and if the DNR doesn’t meet the state’s statutory requirements, it can’t be honored.
Best check your state law (in the US). In many states, one must be a ‘qualified’ patient for it to be legal for a physician to write a DNR order for you. ‘Qualified’ usually means that you have a disease process which is anticipated to be fatal within a relatively short time, such as a year, or that you suffer from a condition such that attempts to resuscitate you would be even more futile than average, or particularly cruel, or would just prolong you in a very painful state.
I agree with all of the above. The laws vary by state. In Virginia, for example, you must have the form signed by a physician with whom you have a valid physician-patient relationship.
There are also rules for EMS:
While I think that a chest tattoo is a great idea, I do not think it would be honored in this state. (Although I do know a patient with Type 1 diabetic tattooed on her forearm).