Tuesday, March 4, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.
CARSON CITY -- A parade of witnesses unanimously endorsed a right-to-die bill to permit emergency technicians outside of hospitals to honor the wishes of the elderly against being resuscitated.
There was no opposition Monday before the Assembly Health and Human Services Committee. Chairwoman Vivian Freeman, D-Reno, said Assembly Bill 29 would be brought up for a vote soon.
Assemblywoman Gene Seger-blom, D-Boulder City, urged the committee not to add any amendments that might sink the bill, which died in the Senate in 1995.
Segerblom, the bill's sponsor, told the committee that Lt. Gov. Lonnie Hammargren, a Las Vegas neurosurgeon, supported the measure. And testimony backing the measure came from the state Health Division, the Clark and Washoe County health districts, the Nevada State Medical Association, the state Division of Aging, the Nevada Nurses Association and representatives of emergency medical companies.
Elizabeth Kolkoski, chief of elder rights for the aging division, said, "We support the right of the elderly person to make decisions."
The bill sets up a procedure for an elderly person to go through his or her doctor and obtain a bracelet with a "do-not-resuscitate" order on it. Persons who administer emergency services such as firefighters, police, ambulance attendants and others would be required to follow the wishes of the patient and they could not be sued.
Stephanie Tyler, lobbyist for the Nevada Nurses Association, said the bill should be amended to take care of a case where an elderly patient, who has a bracelet, is choking on a piece of food in a restaurant.
There were other proposals made to the committee not to limit the bill to the elderly and the terminally ill but to allow those with chronic illnesses to get the bracelets.
And supporters said there should be "do not resuscitate" documents also because some people don't like to wear bracelets.
In sponsoring the bill, Segerblom cited a case in Boulder City where an elderly patient was picked up by emergency technicians and didn't want any heroic care. But he received the extra effort and died in the hospital with his family faced with thousands of dollars in bills.
There are provisions in the bill for a "death-bed conversion" where an individual changes his mind and asks for emergency aid to be kept alive.
archive
