June 10, 2008

Conroy

"Anyone over the age of eighteen should have a living will or a medical power of attorney -- or both," Chuck Conroy told Putnam Rotarians in their luncheon meeting at Wellington's today.

These are documents, he explained, which enable care providers to carry out your wishes when you are unable to make the decisions on your own.

He cited the tragic case of Terry Schiavo, who had been maintained 15 years on life support until her death in 2005. "Had Terry executed one of these documents, none of that litigious mess involving the legislature and the courts would have been necessary," he said.

Most people in West Virginia opt for a combined living will and medical power of attorney, Conroy told the group. The document requires two witnesses and it must be notarized.

"It springs into effect when you can no longer make decisions for yourself," he explained.

Most people designate a spouse or children to exercise their power of attorney.

"You say, 'I have five children.' That's a bad idea, because you can't get five children to agree on whether the sun is shining! -- much less whether to pull the plug on mom or dad at the eid of their life.

"So if you have five children, you need to decide which of those five children has the intestinal fortitude to stand up to a physician and say, 'These were mom or dad's wishes, and I intend to carry them out.'"

There are criminal penalties, he explained, for doctors who fail to folow these instructions.

"We get a lot of bad press in West Virginia over being last -- but there is no other state, per capita, where more people have executed these documents than West Virginia. In West Virginia forty-eight percent of our population has done one of these documents. No other state is even close. Illinois is the number two state with twenty-five percent.

"Of course we've been at this for twenty-five years, but while forty-eight percent of our people have prepared these documents, a majority of our people still have not.

"And after you have executed one of these documents, tell as many people as you know about it."

Conroy cited a recent case in which a woman, with the best of intentions, prepared a living will and placed it in her safe deposit box. A daughter came in from California, and the physician asked what should be done. "I know my mother," she replied. "She would have wanted CPR -- everything possible."

After the woman died, the daughter came across the living will in the deposit box and learned that her directions had been completely opposite to her mother's wishes. "I did everything wrong," she said.

"But that was not the fault of the daughter," said Conroy. "That was the fault of the mother for not telling the child that she had prepared these documents.

"A lot of people travel with these documents in their glove box. When this legislation was enacted, we obtained reciprocity agreements with other states so that a living will from West Virginia is legal anywhere in the United States."

Conroy recently retired from the West Virginia Bureau of Senior Services after thirty years of service.

During his tenure with the bureau, he was responsible for directing the In- Home Care Programs, the Senior Employment Program and the End-of-Life Initiative.

He also chaired the committee that authored all of West Virginia's end-of-life legislation. He now owns and operates a private consulting firm.