Advance Decisions Kit Overview!

Have you ever considered what you would want to happen if an accident or illness left you unconsciousness and unable to communicate your medical wishes to your doctor or family? Well, believe it or not, due to sudden accidents and illnesses this is problem faced by thousands of families and medical practitioners each day in the UK. In many instances, they have no real way of determining what treatments a patient would and would not want. Fortunately, advance decisions were created to avoid this very problem.

An advance decision is a legal document that allows you to have a say in the medical treatment you receive while you are unconscious and unable to communicate. It does this by allowing you to set out your preferences now in relation to the medical treatment you wish and not to receive if you ever lose consciousness. Assuming that your advance decision has been placed on your medical records, your medical team will have a clear set of instructions to adhere to in the event that you become unconscious and unable to communicate your instructions.

In many instances, the procedures that people refuse are aimed at keeping them alive (sometime artificially) rather than fixing the underlying problem which is often virtually untreatable (such as multiple organ failures or severe brain damage). For example, people sometimes provide that if they are terminally ill and fall into a coma then they should be allowed to die naturally rather than being hooked up to a life support machine indefinitely.

However, people also refuse simple medical procedures that may be applied where they simply lose consciousness due a fall or bang on the head. For example, people often state that if they are unconscious and unable to communicate for any reason, then they do not want to receive a blood transfusion unless it is absolutely necessary for the purpose of saving their life. This is often done for religious reasons.

If the absence of having a living will, close family members will generally be allowed to make medical decisions for you during any period in which you are unconscious and unable to do so yourself. While this can be beneficial for you, there is always a risk that your family members might make decisions based on what they believe is best for you rather than what you would actually have wanted in the circumstances. They may then have to live with the guilt of not knowing whether they made the right decision for you. Of course, if they knew what you really wanted, things would of course be so much easier for them.

This Advance Decision Kit has been prepared and approved by experienced solicitors for the purpose of helping you prepare a clear and concise advance decision that complies with the laws in the UK. It takes you step-by-step through the process of making an advance decision, clearly explaining the manner in which advance decisions work, what they cover, when they become operative, and much more. In addition, it contains an easy-to-complete advance decision form that you can use to instruct your family and doctors regarding your future medical preferences.

This kit contains everything you need to create a personalised advance decision quickly and easily.