Emergency iPhone Health App Can Save Your Life

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health appHave you given any thought to how emergency medical care providers know who to contact or what to do if you are in an accident? Some people wear wristbands that contain important health information, such as drug allergies. But there’s an even better tool located in something many of us already carry every day-our iPhones.

The Health App

The iPhone, manufactured by Apple Inc., comes with a free Health app which allows users to track details of their health. From the Health Dashboard, a user can track daily steps, weight, and heart rate. Even nutrition and sleep patterns may be managed using the app.

But setting aside all that fancy stuff, Health is a great app for ensuring medical personnel, such as of emergency room staff and paramedics, have critical information for both treatment and contact purposes.

Users can create an “emergency card” that others can access directly from the lock screen. Even if a passcode is required to unlock the phone, the emergency card can be accessed simply by pressing the Emergency button on the lock screen. Users can choose the information that is displayed, and the information input into the emergency card is not shared with other apps.

How to Get Started

Click the icon that looks like a white square containing a red heart. The Medical ID card should open. Click the “Edit” button in the upper right hand of the screen and input the information you want to be available from your “Lock” screen, such as the following:

  • Birth date;
  • Medical conditions;
  • Medical notes;
  • Allergies and reactions;
  • Medications;
  • Blood type;
  • Organ donor information;
  • Height and weight; and
  • Emergency contact information.

With the Health app, you can arm your emergency health care providers with critical information, potentially saving your life and ensuring your loved ones are contacted in the event of an emergency. So why not spend a few minutes to take advantage of this valuable, free tool today?

Dedicated to your family’s health, wealth, and happiness,
Marc Garlett 91024

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The Legal Planning You Need to Do for Your High School Graduate

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graduate estate planning 91024If you’re the parent of a new graduate from high school this year, congratulations! I know you’ve put a lot of time and effort toward that diploma, and whatever their next step in life will be, you surely want to protect them just as much now as you always have.

So before you pack your kid off to college or just an apartment across town, you need to know that when they leave, they will be taking along many of the legal rights you held before they turned 18.

Once a child turns 18, they are no longer considered a child in the eyes of the law. As such, you no longer have the legal right to access their medical, school, or banking records without their permission. Here are three simple steps you should take before your child leaves the nest to help ensure their safety and your peace of mind:

1. Create an advance healthcare directive. Once your child becomes a legal adult, they need to have an advance healthcare directive that will allow you to access their medical records and make medical decisions for them in case they become incapacitated. This is essential in case of an emergency. They will also need to sign a Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) form that allows medical professionals to share information with you.

2. Use technology. The American Bar Association recently released a free app for iPhone and Android that allows you to store an advance directive and other important documents on a smartphone. The app comes in two versions: the Lite version stores a PDF version of an advance healthcare directive and HIPAA form; the Pro version ($3.99) provides more functionality, including the ability to email documents. The app is called My HealthCare Wishes and is available from the iPhone App Store or Google Play for Android devices. There are also online solutions such as DocuBank.com which stores medical records and allows those to be accessed by medical professionals anywhere in the world.

3. Add an ICE app to your child’s phone. Add an ICE (In Case of Emergency) app to the home page of your child’s phone that lists your contact information and also create an ICE listing in his or her phone contacts with this information. Your child is much more likely to always have their phone with them than to carry a printed card or document.

For more information on protecting your family, call our office to schedule a time for us to sit down and talk about a Family Estate Planning Session, where we can identify the best ways for you to ensure the security of your loved ones. Be one of the first two people to mention this article and we’ll waive our $750 planning fee PLUS create a free healthcare directive for your young adult child.

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A Prolonged Death Provides Lessons for the Living

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Health Care 2Everyone agreed on one thing: Marlise Munoz was dead. The 33-year-old Texas wife, mother and paramedic got up in the middle of the night on Nov. 26, 2013, to tend to her toddler son and suffered a pulmonary embolism. After her husband Erick, also a paramedic, was able to briefly get her breathing again she was transported to John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth, where she was placed on life support.

But everyone knew, and two days later medical tests confirmed, she had no brain activity. In every sense of the word, Marlise was dead.

Unfortunately, Marlise was also 14 weeks pregnant which turned this tragedy into a travesty that was only cut short by a Texas court late last week. JPS Hospital refused to remove Marlise from life support because of The Texas Advance Directives Act, which states that, “A person may not withdraw or withhold life-sustaining treatment…from a pregnant patient.”

Erick and Marlise’s parents had asked JPS Hospital to remove her from life support after her death was confirmed, stating that she had expressed to them many times that she did not want to be artificially kept alive. As a paramedic, she knew what that could have meant for her loved ones.

However, Marlise never executed an advance medical directive or a living will clearly stating her wishes. This is why all of our advanced health care directives specifically address pregnancy (and we never use a form due to ambiguities in many of the form documents), for every plan we draft for a woman who can bear children.

But Marlise didn’t have that in place and her family had no choice: they had to go to court. They also had to endure the worldwide media frenzy surrounding their personal tragedy, and were buffeted by activists on all sides of the issue.

On January 24, a Texas District Court Judge finally ordered the hospital to declare Marlise dead and release her body to the family. Her attorneys had successfully argued that she was no longer a “patient” since she met every benchmark for death. She was removed from life support on January 26 and will be buried in a private family ceremony.

This sad case is an extreme example of what can happen when legal protections are not put in place prior to a tragedy that can happen to anyone. To put the proper protections in place for your family, contact our office to schedule a time for us to sit down and talk. We normally charge $750 for a Family Wealth Planning Session, but because this planning is so important, I’ve made space for the next two people who mention this article to have a complete planning session at no charge. Call today and mention this article.

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