Janet Rivera, 46, has been in a coma since she had a heart attack in February 2006. For more than two years, Rivera’s husband, Jesus Rivera, made all of his wife’s medical decisions while Rivera was under the care of the DeWitt Community Subacute Center in Fresno. In June, apparently because Jesus Rivera was no longer taking the necessary actions for his wife’s care, a judge appointed the Fresno County public guardian to act as conservator of Janet Rivera.

Shortly thereafter, Mrs. Rivera’s condition deteriorated and she had to be hospitalized. At that point the public guardian decided, after consulting with Mrs. Rivera’s physicians, to remove her from life support. Mrs. Rivera, like Terry Schiavo, had not executed an Advance Health Care Directive, which is a document, part of a complete estate plan, wherein you name someone to make medical decisions for you and also indicate your end-of-life wishes. This case is somewhat remarkable in that Mrs. Rivera had not indicated, as far as we can tell, either in writing or in conversation with family members, what her end-of-life preferences were, and yet her conservator, who was not a family member, made a decision to discontinue life support.

Apparently, Mrs. Rivera’s family did not disagree with the public guardian’s decision to discontinue life support at the time, but once the support was discontinued on July 14, at least some of them changed their minds. Mrs. Rivera’s brother, Michael Dancoff, said that he was told Mrs. Rivera would die shortly after life support was removed. He said he doesn’t want to watch his sister die of starvation and is now fighting to have her placed back on life support. He asked the probate court to step in and one of Mrs. Rivera’s cousins has petitioned to be named her conservator. As a result, Fresno County Superior Court Judge Debra Kazanjian ordered, nine days after the tubes were withdrawn, that Janet Rivera’s feeding tubes are to be reinserted pending a hearing about her long-term care.

If Mrs. Rivera had executed an Advance Health Care Directive before her incapacitating heart attack her family would have known what her wishes were and would have been able to act accordingly. Instead, they are now involved in a court case to determine what will happen to her. I strongly encourage all of my clients to execute such a document and make an Advance Health Care Directive a part of every estate plan I prepare.

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Kirsten Howe practices estate planning law in Walnut Creek. Send your estate planning questions to Kirsten by e-mail.