Walk It Through: The Hospital Paperwork
A health care agent named before surgery, a nurse who offers to witness, a parent in the ICU with no directive, and a sibling disagreement.
Before surgery, a patient wants to name an adult child as health care agent.
Two things a person in this spot might do. Picking one shows what the law says about it.
Decisions for an adult who has lost capacity. A minor patient, mental health treatment, and a guardianship case have their own rules.
A practice walkthrough, not a prediction of how any real one will go. Legal information, not legal advice.
Words this turns on
Terms with a legal meaning that is narrower than the everyday one. Each links to the definition and the authority behind it.
- Durable power of attorneyA power of attorney that survives the principal's incapacity, which is what a power of attorney made under the current act is unless it says otherwise.
- SurrogateA person who makes health care decisions for an adult who lacks capacity and has no directive, agent or guardian available, chosen by the patient or by the statute's family order.