Skip to content
  • About
  • Contact
  • Contribute
  • Book
  • Careers
  • Podcast
  • Recommended
  • Speaking
  • All
  • Physician
  • Practice
  • Policy
  • Finance
  • Conditions
  • .edu
  • Patient
  • Meds
  • Tech
  • Social
  • Video
    • All
    • Physician
    • Practice
    • Policy
    • Finance
    • Conditions
    • .edu
    • Patient
    • Meds
    • Tech
    • Social
    • Video
    • About
    • Contact
    • Contribute
    • Book
    • Careers
    • Podcast
    • Recommended
    • Speaking

To avoid unwanted medical treatment: Choose a bulldog surrogate to fight for you

Althea Halchuck, EJD
Conditions
October 25, 2024
Share
Tweet
Share

“Health is a matter of choice, not a mystery of chance.”
—Aristotle

As an end-of-life (EOL) consultant, one aspect of my job is advance care planning, which involves helping people create an advance directive. An advance directive (AD) has two components. The living will portion lists the treatment options and choices you want or don’t want if you become incapacitated due to an accident or a medical crisis. In the second portion, you name a surrogate to follow through on those choices. Other names for a surrogate include agent, health care proxy, and medical power-of-attorney. The roles are nuanced by each state, but essentially, they all have the same function: speaking for an incapacitated patient.

Your choice of surrogate may be more important than your living will.

The person you choose as your surrogate plays a crucial role in ensuring you receive the care you want when you’re incapacitated. If your advance directive is properly executed, it acts as a guide for your surrogate. Their role is not to make decisions but to uphold the treatment wishes you’ve outlined in your AD. It’s vital that you and your surrogate have numerous discussions about your living will choices, including your values, what’s most important to you, quality versus quantity of life, and your care goals.

These are the biggest challenges you face as a surrogate/proxy:

1. Emotional strength is most important when helping an incapacitated loved one. At EOL, you often must make difficult decisions that can result in death, such as removing a ventilator or a feeding tube. Most people can’t do that without some guilt or second-guessing, even many years after the death. For this reason, a spouse or child may not be the best person to follow through on EOL wishes.

2. Family opposition/interference or resistance from medical providers is another challenge. Getting the family on board with the surrogate choice and treatment decisions is crucial. A conflicting family member can cause medical professionals to ignore the AD or surrogate and “err on the side of life.” Legally, staff must follow the AD and listen to the surrogate’s instructions, but a noisy and insistent family member can cause havoc and dissension at the bedside. Letting the family know beforehand that you have been chosen as the “boss” will help alleviate conflicts. Having the patient create a video as a backup, stating their treatment wishes and naming you as the surrogate, can make the process easier for the family to accept.

3. Fear of approaching authority figures, especially doctors, needs to be overcome to help explain treatment options and medical language. You are not expected to know everything and may need the guidance of experts to carry out your surrogate duties. You may choose alternatives, such as no treatment and providing comfort care—tough choices for anyone.

4. Persistence and stamina to fight for the patient or to let them go is usually required. If the patient is dying, anticipatory grief may be a factor, and you may be very emotional. It’s a tough time for any surrogate, especially if you are very close to the patient. Advocating for the patient is job one, and you need to be tenacious like a bulldog to see it through.

A surrogate needs to be confident, fearless, and persistent—like a dog with a bone.

You must know the patient well, understand their values, beliefs, and preferences, and agree to carry them out. When there is ambiguity, you must advocate for the patient’s wishes, seeking to make decisions as the patient would have made them if they had decision-making capacity. Try to walk in their shoes and use their preferences and values to do what is in their best interests.

Always advocate for the patient, even in emotionally fraught or life-or-death situations.

Don’t back down or be intimidated by those in power.

ADVERTISEMENT

Be deliberative and decisive in quickly changing or emergent situations. Be a good listener. Don’t be a wallflower. The patient is counting on you to follow their wishes.

Be like a bulldog

Despite its grumpy face, the English bulldog is friendly and curious. It is also courageous, loving, and highly loyal to its owners. However, bulldogs also tend to be stubborn and strong-willed. Their tenacity and resolve mean it’s difficult to get them to change their minds once they decide to do something.

Having that bulldog personality will prevent your patient or loved one from enduring unwanted medical treatment and keep the focus on what they do want. Surrogates must be like bulldogs!

Althea Halchuck is a patient advocate.

Prev

The maternal and child health crisis in Sudan: a call to action

October 25, 2024 Kevin 0
…
Next

The widow’s walk: a poignant tale of loss, love, and recovery

October 25, 2024 Kevin 0
…

Tagged as: Hospital-Based Medicine

Post navigation

< Previous Post
The maternal and child health crisis in Sudan: a call to action
Next Post >
The widow’s walk: a poignant tale of loss, love, and recovery

ADVERTISEMENT

More by Althea Halchuck, EJD

  • Airlines’ policy ignores your do not resuscitate (DNR): Discover why and some ways to protect yourself

    Althea Halchuck, EJD
  • Grandpa’s remains are helping push up daisies

    Althea Halchuck, EJD
  • Breaking through the cobwebs of dementia

    Althea Halchuck, EJD

Related Posts

  • The medical establishment’s fight for and against diversity

    Arthur Lazarus, MD, MBA
  • How the COVID-19 pandemic highlights the need for social media training in medical education 

    Oscar Chen, Sera Choi, and Clara Seong
  • To fight medical student burnout, focus less on the clinic and more on life

    Natalie LaBossier
  • Timely treatment decisions: the promise of surrogate markers

    Layla Parast, PhD
  • Medical school gap year: Why working as a medical assistant is perfect

    Natalie Enyedi
  • End medical school grades

    Adam Lieber

More in Conditions

  • Could ECMO change where we die and how our organs are donated?

    Deepak Gupta, MD
  • From Civil War tales to iPhones: a family history in contrast

    Richard A. Lawhern, PhD
  • The hidden dangers of over-the-counter weight-loss supplements

    STRIPED, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
  • How denial of hypertension endangers lives and what doctors can do

    Dr. Aminat O. Akintola
  • How physicians can reclaim resilience through better sleep, nutrition, and exercise

    Kim Downey, PT & Shirish Sachdeva, PT, DPT & Ziya Altug, PT, DPT
  • Who are you outside of the white coat?

    Annia Raja, PhD
  • Most Popular

  • Past Week

    • Love, birds, and fries: a story of innocence and connection

      Dr. Damane Zehra | Physician
    • How a doctor defied a hurricane to save a life

      Dharam Persaud-Sharma, MD, PhD | Physician
    • Why primary care needs better dermatology training

      Alex Siauw | Conditions
    • Why physician strikes are a form of hospice

      Patrick Hudson, MD | Physician
    • Why medical notes have become billing scripts instead of patient stories

      Sriman Swarup, MD, MBA | Tech
    • How to balance clinical duties with building a startup

      Arlen Meyers, MD, MBA | Physician
  • Past 6 Months

    • Why transgender health care needs urgent reform and inclusive practices

      Angela Rodriguez, MD | Conditions
    • COVID-19 was real: a doctor’s frontline account

      Randall S. Fong, MD | Conditions
    • Why primary care doctors are drowning in debt despite saving lives

      John Wei, MD | Physician
    • New student loan caps could shut low-income students out of medicine

      Tom Phan, MD | Physician
    • Confessions of a lipidologist in recovery: the infection we’ve ignored for 40 years

      Larry Kaskel, MD | Conditions
    • mRNA post vaccination syndrome: Is it real?

      Harry Oken, MD | Conditions
  • Recent Posts

    • How to balance clinical duties with building a startup

      Arlen Meyers, MD, MBA | Physician
    • When life makes you depend on Depends

      Francisco M. Torres, MD | Physician
    • Could ECMO change where we die and how our organs are donated?

      Deepak Gupta, MD | Conditions
    • Every medication error is a system failure, not a personal flaw

      Muhammad Abdullah Khan | Meds
    • From Civil War tales to iPhones: a family history in contrast

      Richard A. Lawhern, PhD | Conditions
    • Reframing self-care as required maintenance for physicians [PODCAST]

      The Podcast by KevinMD | Podcast

Subscribe to KevinMD and never miss a story!

Get free updates delivered free to your inbox.


Find jobs at
Careers by KevinMD.com

Search thousands of physician, PA, NP, and CRNA jobs now.

Learn more

View 1 Comments >

Founded in 2004 by Kevin Pho, MD, KevinMD.com is the web’s leading platform where physicians, advanced practitioners, nurses, medical students, and patients share their insight and tell their stories.

Social

  • Like on Facebook
  • Follow on Twitter
  • Connect on Linkedin
  • Subscribe on Youtube
  • Instagram

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

  • Most Popular

  • Past Week

    • Love, birds, and fries: a story of innocence and connection

      Dr. Damane Zehra | Physician
    • How a doctor defied a hurricane to save a life

      Dharam Persaud-Sharma, MD, PhD | Physician
    • Why primary care needs better dermatology training

      Alex Siauw | Conditions
    • Why physician strikes are a form of hospice

      Patrick Hudson, MD | Physician
    • Why medical notes have become billing scripts instead of patient stories

      Sriman Swarup, MD, MBA | Tech
    • How to balance clinical duties with building a startup

      Arlen Meyers, MD, MBA | Physician
  • Past 6 Months

    • Why transgender health care needs urgent reform and inclusive practices

      Angela Rodriguez, MD | Conditions
    • COVID-19 was real: a doctor’s frontline account

      Randall S. Fong, MD | Conditions
    • Why primary care doctors are drowning in debt despite saving lives

      John Wei, MD | Physician
    • New student loan caps could shut low-income students out of medicine

      Tom Phan, MD | Physician
    • Confessions of a lipidologist in recovery: the infection we’ve ignored for 40 years

      Larry Kaskel, MD | Conditions
    • mRNA post vaccination syndrome: Is it real?

      Harry Oken, MD | Conditions
  • Recent Posts

    • How to balance clinical duties with building a startup

      Arlen Meyers, MD, MBA | Physician
    • When life makes you depend on Depends

      Francisco M. Torres, MD | Physician
    • Could ECMO change where we die and how our organs are donated?

      Deepak Gupta, MD | Conditions
    • Every medication error is a system failure, not a personal flaw

      Muhammad Abdullah Khan | Meds
    • From Civil War tales to iPhones: a family history in contrast

      Richard A. Lawhern, PhD | Conditions
    • Reframing self-care as required maintenance for physicians [PODCAST]

      The Podcast by KevinMD | Podcast

MedPage Today Professional

An Everyday Health Property Medpage Today
  • Terms of Use | Disclaimer
  • Privacy Policy
  • DMCA Policy
All Content © KevinMD, LLC
Site by Outthink Group

To avoid unwanted medical treatment: Choose a bulldog surrogate to fight for you
1 comments

Comments are moderated before they are published. Please read the comment policy.

Loading Comments...