Anne Heche’s Passing
Actress Anne Heche passed away last week after sustaining critical injuries in a car crash. Heche came to prominence with roles in I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997), Volcano (1997), and Psycho (1998). She is survived by her sons, Homer and Atlas.
According to a statement by Heche’s family, Heche suffered a severe anoxic brain injury (no oxygen supply to the brain) following the crash. Prolonged reduced or limited oxygen flow to the brain can result in brain cell death and permanent brain damage. Heche was left in a coma, and on August 12, was declared brain dead, fulfilling the criteria for legal death under California law. However, she was kept on life support so her heart could continue beating until August 15 to determine viability and identify a recipient for organ donation.
Why Advance Directives?
An advance directive is a set of legal documents that allow you to express your wishes for sudden end-of-life situations. One document, called a Health Care Power of Attorney in Arizona, allows you to appoint a person to make healthcare decisions for you if you were in a circumstance where you could not make them for yourself. Another document, a living will, allows you to state your preferences relating to end-of-life healthcare.
Tragic cases like Heche’s illustrate the importance of planning for end-of-life care, whether to ensure the decisions made are in line with your values or to provide guidance and comfort for loved ones. For example, Heche’s publicist announced that she had chosen to be an organ donor while alive, and an advance directive is one way to request your organs be removed (or not removed) for donation, and for what purposes (to a recipient, research, etc.).
Additionally, though it appears there was no disagreement among Heche’s family members about next steps, in other cases family members may disagree over what types of medical treatments to seek, if and when to “pull the plug,” and what their loved one would have wanted. An advance directive can help mitigate difficult decision-making at a time of grief, and healthcare providers are required to respect these documents.
Issues to Consider?
Advances in modern medicine often prolong the process of dying and have created new bioethical issues you may want to consider in your advance directive. For example, in situations such as Heche’s where there is a severe brain injury or incapacitation, take some time to think about the following:
- Decide if you would want to prolong your life by any medical means, or to remove life support if the incapacitation was diagnosed as irreversible or with low chance of recovery. What does quality of life mean to you?
- What kinds of pain medication would you want administered or withheld, and for how long?
- Whom do you trust to make the best healthcare decisions for you in line with your wishes and values?
- What do you want to communicate to family and loved ones about your healthcare wishes?
Heche’s untimely death is a reminder that preparing for healthcare is not only for older adults or those with serious medical conditions. Advance directives allow anyone to prepare for sudden end-of-life situations, and a previous article discusses in more detail the types of advance directives and end-of-life healthcare decisions you can make.
Speaking to your loved ones, your physician, and attorney can help you make decisions about the kind of care you want to receive. The process of deciding on your healthcare wishes and drafting an advance directive can be complex. If you would like more guidance or to learn more about advance directives, please call Yaser Ali Law at (480)-442-4175 or fill out our contact form here.