Posted by ElaineIL on 10/15/2009, 5:16 pm, in reply to "Do Not Resuscitatec form & living will advise?"
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Jarity, The most important part of this process, IMHO, is talking to the person named as your health care agent. In my case, I have talked to my daughter at length about this. Intubation is probably the one thing we COPDers worry about most.
In my case, I've made it clear to my D that it may be necessary to intubate me temporarily for a variety of reasons. The key word is temporarily. In such circumstances she will consult with my doctors (and not just one, by the way). If, in their opinion, they expect the intubation to be a temporary measure, then it should be done. If they expect it to be permanent, or, after intubating me, they determine that I can't be weaned off of it, that's when the DNR comes into play.
BTW, I have a close friend who did have to be intubated three years ago. He does not have COPD but had other major health issues. The docs felt he needed to be intubated because his other issues were putting too much strain on his heart. He was intubated for 10 days and had no problem getting off the ventilator when his other issues were more stable.
This is just my personal solution, but I hope it helps you to think about how you feel about this issue.
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