Wichita Power of Attorney and Advance Directives Attorneys Help Clients Prepare for Medical Emergencies
Kansas law firm helps you manage your finances and your health care needs
A medical emergency can render you unable to express your directions for health care and treatment preferences and for attending to your financial interests. You can prepare for this unfortunate possibility by creating living wills, durable powers of attorney and other advance directives. Peggs Wheeler, LC of Wichita, Kansas is experienced in drafting documents that effectively convey and enforce our clients’ wishes.
Using advance directives for your health care needs
An advance directive lets you give instructions on what health care you want to receive if you become incapacitated to the point that you are unable to make or communicate those decisions directly to care providers.
Advance directives have the advantages of allowing you to:
- Plan for medical emergencies in advance
- Eliminate the possibility of confusion about your health care preferences
- Avoid unnecessary pain and suffering in a crisis situation
A health care advance directive commonly includes provisions that:
- Name an agent to make health care decisions on your behalf
- Advise your agent and health care providers about your preferences
- State any limits on your agent’s powers
- State whether and under what circumstances you wish to have life-sustaining treatment withheld from you
- State what organs or other body parts you wish to donate
Advance directives can also be used to arrange for management of financial affairs. We’re experienced in preparing advance directives that meet diverse needs and purposes.
Expressing your health care preferences through living wills
A living will is a limited-purpose advance directive that states what life-sustaining treatment you do or do not want to be given to you if you become terminally ill. There are multiple types of treatment that must be specified, such as CPR, ventilators, tube feeding, dialysis, resuscitation and medication. At least two physicians must make the determination that your illness is terminal.
You should make your living will when you’re still healthy, rather than wait until you’re ill, because accidents or other unexpected calamities may incapacitate you without warning. Our firm’s attorneys will sit down with you and discuss your options in order to draft a living will that meets your preferences and that is enforceable by law.
Designating a trusted representative through a durable power of attorney
A durable power of attorney is a document that empowers someone to act in your behalf for specified purposes. That person is known as your agent or attorney-in-fact. The power of attorney should:
- State that you’re of sound mind at the time you executed it
- Specify that it is a durable power of attorney and remains effective if you become incapacitated
- Define the scope of your agent’s authority, such as whether that authority covers health care decisions, financial matters or both
- State under what circumstances it will take effect.
A health care power of attorney differs from a living will in that it gives an agent authority to make decisions concerning your medical treatment, whereas a living will only instructs on the life-sustaining treatment that should be given if you are terminally ill.
The person you name as your agent should be someone you trust — such as your spouse, another relative or a friend — and who is willing and able to perform the duties involved. We will draft a power of attorney for you after a thorough review of what you need and want. We also create powers of attorney as part of estate planning, in conjunction with our wills and trusts practice.
Contact a dedicated Kansas advance directives lawyer for a free initial consultation
Peggs Wheeler, LC in Wichita assists people throughout Kansas with all types of legal matters relating to living wills, powers of attorney and other advance directives. Please call 316-512-7853 or contact us online to schedule a free initial consultation.