Susan Hatch is a retired certified nursing assistant and medical office manager from Dover, New Hampshire. After her husband, Clifton “Teddy” Hatch, was intubated and resuscitated despite explicitly stating in his advance directive that he did not want these interventions, she began advocating for stronger patient-directed care in hospital settings and for broader education on end-of-life planning.
Susan Hatch is a retired certified nursing assistant and medical office manager from Dover, New Hampshire. After her husband, Clifton "Teddy" Hatch, was intubated and resuscitated despite explicitly stating in his advance directive that he did not want these interventions, she began advocating for stronger patient-directed care in hospital settings and for broader education on end-of-life planning.
For nearly a decade, almost every time my husband, Teddy, went into the hospital, they asked if he had an advance directive. And he did: It was notarized and given to any doctor he saw and any hospital he visited, including the one he died in.
But on the last day of Teddy’s life, the interventions he received were explicitly against his wishes as documented in his advance directive: no resuscitation, …
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