What happens if your partner gets sick and needs to go to the hospital? Will you be able to take charge of their care? Will their family interfere with your decision-making because they never really accepted the relationship in the first place?
Whether you answered yes or no to any of those questions, there are simple ways to make sure that the outcome is what you intend and not what some court or hospital determines is the legal thing to do. Having a health care surrogate document in place ensures that the person or persons you've chosen to make decisions for you actually have the power to do so.
Here's what happened to Gina and Andrea, who had been together for over 10 years:
No documents were in place. Gina got sick. Her parents came down to Florida and told Andrea that she had no right to make decisions for Gina. Medical decisions were made that were contrary to what Gina had expressed to Andrea, but there was nothing Andrea could do about it. In the end, Gina died and her parents took her back to New York to a mausoleum that she never wanted to be buried in. And, since Gina never got around to putting Andrea's name on the deed to the house, Gina's parents gave Andrea 10 days to vacate a home she had been living in for 10 years.
Really bad result . . . Don't let it happen to you!
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