National Healthcare Decisions Day, April 16th

National Healthcare Decisions Day is fast approaching. According to Pew Research Center study, 71 percent of Americans have considered their end-of-life treatment preferences. However, very few of them have communicated these wishes to their loved ones or physicians.

In the past five years, four out of 10 Americans had a friend or relative suffer from a terminal illness or go into a coma. Most of them had to deal with the medical crisis along with the issue of withholding life-sustaining treatment. Unfortunately, waiting until there’s a medical emergency is often too late. At that point, many patients are unable to communicate their wishes.

There is now a web site,www.nhdd.org, where you’ll find free advance directives forms for every state, along with other resources.

Some topics are hard to talk about, but as I tell my young children, the easy approach doesn't make it the right approach.

I agree with this op ed, communicate your thoughts, do an advance directive.