Q: Do you need a court order to stop feeding via peg-tube if patient has an advance directive stating that they want that?
My brother had a heart attack 20 years ago and it left him severely brain damaged. He has been in a semi-conscious state ever since, living in a nursing home, not able to communicate, walk, sit up unassisted, or follow commands. He does track people when they enter a room. He has been fed through a peg tube for the last 20 years. He recently developed kidney disease and will die from it. We recently discovered he had an advanced directive that was ignored by my parents 20 years ago. They are both passed, and I am his medical advocate. The living will states that he would want nutrition withheld or withdrawn if he was vegetative for more than 30 days. The nurse admin at his nursing home said we would need a court order to stop feeding because that decision needed to be made 20 years ago before the tube was inserted.
He is greatly diminished for the last 75 days since his kidneys started failing. Is this true? Do I need a court order? Or should his advance directive finally be followed?
A: You will certainly need a court order. No medical facility is going to proceed otherwise on such an old directive, especially when there has been care to the contrary since then. There's simply way too much liability here to get it wrong.
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