Widower Regrets Not Having Advance Directive Handy at Hospital

This weekend, in newspapers across the country, Dear Abby addressed a reader letter describing a misinterpreted advance directive. 

The patient remained in cardiac and respiratory distress because clinicians said her "her living will was a DNR." This was wrong. In fact, the patient's treatment preference was explicitly conditional on her being "terminally ill or permanently unconscious." Since she was neither, the treatment preference in the advance directive was not applicable.

The patient's husband regrets not having his own copy of the advance directive to consult. That may have helped. But it is not the only error mitigating strategy. As the TRIAD line of research demonstrates, clinicians should also read advance directives carefully to ensure accurate interpretation.