Why Do I Need a Medical Directive CARD?
"Fortune favors the prepared mind." -Louis Pasteur
For medical emergencies
What would happen if you could no longer make decisions about your medical care because of a serious illness or injury? How would emergency medical personal and doctors know your wishes?
You can plan ahead by writing an Advance Medical Directive, also called an Advance Directive. (Some call it a Blood Card others a No Blood Card). A Medical Directive outlines the treatment you want and/or names the person you appoint to make health care decisions for you if you are no longer able to express your wishes due to unconsciousness or a coma.
In an emergency you will need legal protection.
A Medical Directive CARD is your first line of defense. It should be the first thing a paramedic sees when he opens your wallet.
Why do I need an Advance Medical Directive Document CARD?
In a medical emergency paramedics and emergency personnel are trained to look for patient identification.
An Advance Medical Directive CARD is an identification card but it also makes all your medical requirements known to paramedics, emergency medical technicians, and emergency room doctors and other healthcare professionals in a wallet sized document.
In the event unconsciousness or a comma you need to make known your personal medical decisions.
You can have peace of mind knowing that you have legally identified what treatments and procedures you choose to accept or want to avoid.
When they find your No Blood Medical Directive CARD it will both identify you and your medical decision to refuse blood with its bold logo and it will also direct them to your more complete Advance Medical Directive FORM.
Your NO BLOOD CARD is portable and convenient to carry. You can carry with you to places where a more cumbersome Advance Medical Directive FORM is not easily taken.
Click here to download your free MyBlood Medical Directive CARD.
This is the only wallet-sized no blood medical directive found on the internet.
But we recommend more …
Advance Medical Directive FORM
Legal experts recommend that you have an Advance Medical Directive FORM filled out.
This legal document makes known your medical wishes in a more complete manner and allows you to include much more additional information than an Advance Medical Document CARD can.
An Advance Medical Directive FORM can also include a living will, do not resuscitate orders and other directives associated with your medical care
Click here to download your free Advance Medical Directive FORM and appointment of healthcare surrogate form to give you health care provider or doctor.
Click here to learn more and to find Advance Medical Directive Forms on the internet.
Disclaimer:
Advance medical directives etc. (This paragraph is extracted from our complete disclaimer for your convenience. Please read the complete disclaimer.)
All MyBlood advance medical directives, medical releases and health-care surrogate forms are products of MyBlood. MyBlood requests that you have these forms reviewed by an elder law specialist in your region (country, state, province etc.) to determine the legality and enforceability of the CARD and or FORM in your region (country, state, province etc.). MyBlood medical directives, releases and forms are simple and to the point, however, as an international website we cannot review all applicable laws governing health and patients rights in over 150 countries and numerous provinces and states. United Nation’s Act conformity
It is our opinion that all of our products are in harmony with United Nation's Act (/C.12/2000/4) that
1) prohibits non-consensual medical treatment and
2) guarantees your right to realize the highest attainable standard of health;
and the federal Patient Self Determination Act* of the United States.
By downloading or purchasing any of MyBlood's products you accept the responsibility of determining if these products will fit your local legal requirements and you release MyBlood from any liability and hold MyBlood harmless of any guilt.
The Patient Self Determination Act
*What is commonly called The Patient Self Determination Act is actually a series of declarations embedded in Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1990.
See Title 42 Chapter 7 of the US Code Subchapter XVIII Part E
a simple link which includes a copy of the law
Look for subheading "(f) Maintenance of written policies and procedures"
It states that certain hospitals must provide and notify certain patients (adults) (of) the following:
(A) to provide written information to each such individual concerning—
(i) an individual’s rights under State law (whether statutory or as recognized by the courts of the State) to make decisions concerning such medical care, including the right to accept or refuse medical or surgical treatment and the right to formulate advance directives (as defined in paragraph (3)), and
(ii) the written policies of the provider or organization respecting the implementation of such rights;
(B) to document in a prominent part of the individual’s current medical record whether or not the individual has executed an advance directive;
More on the The Patient Self-Determination Act
The Patient Self-Determination Act is a law that requires "health professionals reimbursed by Medicare/Medicaid to inform Patients of their legal rights to refuse treatment and prepare advance directives."
The PSDA went into effect on December 1, 1991. It requires hospitals, nursing homes, and certain other health care providers for Medicare recipients to implement institutional policies concerning "advance directives." These policies must provide for routinely informing patients upon admission about their state's law - - whether established by the legislature or the courts - - regarding advance directives concerning medical treatment should the patient become incompetent adj. 1) referring to a person who is not able to manage his/her affairs due to mental deficiency (lack of I.Q., deterioration, illness or psychosis) or sometimes physical disability, such as living wills and durable powers of attorney for health care. The institution must then document in the patient's medical record whether or not he or she has signed such a document. Each health care provider must also provide education for staff members and the "community" about advance directives.
Links to other sites
link to an explanation
a second link
a simple link which includes a copy of the law
another link, the free library says the following:
What is the definition of an Advance Directive?
"A legal document expressing a person's medical wishes in the event of his/her mental or physical incapacity. An advance directive is made while the director is still competent, and comes into effect at incapacity. An advance directive may state whether or not the director wishes to be placed on life support or to receive a particular treatment. It may or may not assign another party — usually a family member — to make these decisions as they come up. It is important to note that in this situation, an advance directive is not a power of attorney and neither allows the other party access to the assignor's finances, nor obliges him/her to pay for any treatment." -thefreedictionary.com
An Advance Directive (or Advance Medical Directive) is a document expressing a person's wishes about critical care when he or she is unable to decide for him or herself. However, it does not authorize anyone to act on a person's behalf or make decisions the way a power of attorney would.
A No-Blood Card is an Advance Medical Directive – but an incomplete one
Your free MyBlood Advance Medical Directive CARD is a medical directive that informs medical professionals of your desire to avoid a blood transfusion. It is too small in size to act as a complete directive that expresses all of your medical wishes. Legal experts recommend a more complete form that will outline all of your wishes for medical treatment. Click here to learn more. Find out why a MyBlood "No Blood Transfusion Card" is not enough – it is only the first line of defense.
Further protection
"People should understand that following an accident, your wallet or purse indicating your wishes [in a medical directive card] may not arrive in the Emergency Department with you. A person’s bloodless status can be noted on an emergency medical bracelet." -Dr. David Livingston, Chief of Trauma, University Hospital
Listen to the experts
"The administration of blood products is surrounded by emotions, misconceptions, and myths." -Strategic Blood Management
"A great institutional variability exists in transfusion practice, for no medical reason." -The History and Organization of Blood Management, Blackwell Publishing
"Despite the common use of red blood cell transfusions, doctors are not sure how much blood people need after surgery." -Robert Wood Johnson Medical School
"Despite the prevalence of transfusion, there is scant evidence of its effectiveness." -Deborah Josefson Nebraska, BMJ
"Oncologists appear to use different triggers for administering platelets to prevent bleeding. 'One oncologist will use 50,000 as the cutoff and another 10,000.'" -Dr. Susan Roseff, MD, Director of Transfusion Medicine, Virginia Commonwealth University
"A person's blood is like his fingerprints—there are no two types of blood that are exactly alike." -Niels Jerne 1984 Nobel Prize Recipient
"Fifteen years ago it was found that EPO could be used to stimulate the patient's marrow to make more of their own red cells. In the following five years or so, that virtually abolished the use of blood transfusion in kidney patients.” -Dr. Ivor Cavill, Senior Fellow in Haematology, Cardiff University
"[Blood transfusion] avoidance is usually fairly safe and well tolerated even for patients with a low hemoglobin level." –Dr. Aryeh Shander, MD, Chief of Anesthesiology and Critical Care at Englewood Hospital and Medical Center
"Despite this large and ever growing body of evidence that blood transfusion behaves like organ transplantation, regulation of its use remains lenient in comparison to other types of transplantation." -Aryeh Shander, Sherri Ozawa, Teekam D Ochani – AORN Journal
Synthetic Blood Substitutes
Scientists dream of a human blood substitute – something that can be given to a patient that needs a blood transfusion but that does not carry the risks of blood. Can human blood be duplicated?
More Than Just a Cooperative Surgeon Is Needed 
A complete Bloodless Program requires more than just a cooperative surgeon in the treatment of a Bloodless Patient. Before the surgeon performs the operation special preparation of the Bloodless Patient is needed.
Bloodless Surgery and Medicine Programs – a description
A Bloodless Surgery and Medicine Program generally refers to a surgical program in a hospital where homologous blood transfusions (blood from another patient) are carefully and intentionally avoided in order to fulfill a patient’s desire to avoid receiving a blood transfusion. These programs are expansive, detailed and complex and all of the techniques used have to meet the highest standards possible.
Transfusion Alternatives in Bloodless Surgery
Questions about the safety of the blood supply still persist and more patients than ever are asking if there are safe alternatives to human blood. The list of alternatives is longer than many believe and they available now.
Is Blood Bad for Women ?
Both post-surgical mortality and in hospital deaths are significantly higher for women than for men. Women are transfused more often than men. Is there a link?
Can Infants and Small Children Have Bloodless Surgery ?
Tiny tots and small children have had liver transplants, abdominal, cranial and other surgeries performed without a single drop of blood being transfused.
Is Bloodless Surgery an Option for the Elderly ?
Ask 89 year old Iris. She has had both knees and a hip replaced, a tumor removed from her heart, and more. She survived 5 Bloodless Surgeries and can tell her grandkids she has no worries about AIDS, Hepatitis C or any other blood borne disease.
Robyn Tharson
RNC, BSN
Coordinator - University Center for Bloodless Surgery and Medicine
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Simon Temple
Perfusionist
Brook Haven Medical Hospital
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