Advance Directives, Do Not Resuscitate Orders, and Power of Attorney for Health Care

In 2005, Terri Schiavo collapsed at home and was found by her husband without respirations or a pulse. She was resuscitated, but suffered severe anoxic brain injury and after 21/2 months was diagnosed as being in a persistent vegetative state. A court appointed her husband as her legal guardian as she did not have a written advance directive and had not specified a power of attorney for health care (POAHC), but heated court battles raged between her husband and her parents regarding who should be making decisions and what the appropriate decisions were. This case highlights the importance of writing down instructions for end-of-life care or designating someone to make decisions in their best interest in the event they could not make these decisions themselves. This review covers advance directives, do-not-resuscitate orders, and POAHC. Figures show an extended values history form, an example of a living will, the California’s Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment form, components of the CURVES mnemonic to assess decision-making capacity in critical/emergency situations, and activation and deactivation of power of attorney for health care. Tables list the most common types of advance directive and description of each, barriers to the use of advance directives, common themes in surgeons’ attitudes regarding advance directives, general requirements and exclusions for POAHC, and requirements for decision-making capacity in patients. This review contains 5 figures, 8 tables, and 58 references Keywords: Advance directives, power of attorney in health care, do not resuscitate order, decision-making, end-of-life, critical care