How should my husband and I amend our advanced directives during the Covid-19 pandemic?
We are in our mid-70s with one of us having a serious medical condition--stage 4 cancer currently being reasonably managed with chemo--life expectancy unknown but seemingly not imminent and quality of our lives good. Our most recent advanced directive forms, written before the pandemic, specify that we would allow ventilators, feeding tube, etc. on a very short term basis--less than a week--to help survive a short-term medical event if a reasonable recovery was expected.
Given the shortage of front-line, stretched-to-the limit medical staff, ICU hospital beds, ventilators, and protective gear, we do not want a major intervention during a Covid-19-related crisis that would use up resources that might be better saved for younger, healthier patients.
So two questions:
1. Do we add a "pandemic-only" amendment to our current forms? If so, what should the statement say? (Our doctors are already over-stretched so hard to reach them right now to discuss this.)
2. If one of us got Covid-19 and became very ill with it, do we just stay home rather than expose EMT and hospital medical staff or go in and get some kind of palliative care, mindful that we're adding to medical staff's virus exposure?
What's the practical thing to do when the scenes at hospitals everywhere are unimaginable as we shelter at home in comfort right now? One of us will be getting chemo within a week at a hospital, so exposure to possible Covid-19 carriers and vice versa is a risk; hence the question. We live in a state, not NY, with significant cases. |
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