What it means to be a health care proxy

I just watched Keith Olbermann's Special Comment -- MSNBC -- February 24, 2010. Olbermann spoke  movingly about what it means to be a patient advocate for a loved one and about the importance of end-of-life planning, both for the patient and for the loved one(s) who may be chosen to make health care decisions when a patient is no longer able to do so. Olbermann also spoke passionately how important it is for our Congress to make health care accessible to all Americans.

I have to say that, having acted as a health care proxy for my parents at the end of their lives, I wept throughout Olbermann's extremely moving plea.

Keith Olbermann opened his emotional Special Comment on health care Wednesday with the story of his father's six-month-long hospitalization suffering through a colon removal, pneumonia, kidney failure, liver failure, and many infections.

After a particularly difficult week, Olbermann said he went into his father's hospital room to find him "thrashing his head back and forth" and mouthing the word "Help."

"It was just too much for my father," Olbermann said. "'Stop this,' he mouths. 'Stop, stop, stop.'"

Olbermann said he resorted to gallows humor, asking his father, "What, you want me to smother you with a pillow?" And his father responded, mouthing, "Yes, kill me."

Olbermann spoke passionately in favor of patients' rights to decision-making at the end of life and to have the right to discuss options, including an end to treatment even though it could mean the patient dies. "This is not a death panel . . . it's a life panel!" Olbermann stated emphatically. You may watch Olbermann's plea here.

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Comments

[Caregiving For the Elderly]

A health care proxy is a legal document which appoints another person to make health care decisions for you in the event you are unable. The document only takes effect when your doctor has declared that you are unable to make medical decisions on your own behalf. Only one person at a time can be appointed as your health care agent, but you may list one or more alternate agents.