You’ve heard that it’s a good idea to document ahead of time what sorts of care you want – and don’t want – and who can speak for you if you become unable to make decisions about your care yourself in the future.  You may be feeling very virtuous: 

“Yes, yes!” you think.  “I have a health care power of attorney and a living will [advance directive].  I’m covered!”

Maybe not.

Imagine that you are in an auto accident or suffer some other sudden injury or illness; you are unconscious and stay that way for a while.  Imagine the emergency room staff trying to learn who can speak for you and what documents you’ve prepared.

Fortunately, both your wallet and your cell phone were brought in with you. Your driver’s license identifies you. But who do they call?

“Oh, all my contacts are in my cell phone!  No problem!”

Perhaps your cell phone is fully charged, you’ve never gotten around to setting up a password on it, and it has all your contacts.  All 342 of them.  Do you think the emergency room is going to start calling around, even to just the 27 people with your same last name, trying to find the right person? 

Not likely. 

And suppose that you’ve diligently protected your phone with a password. No one can get to any of your contact information.

So now what?  With your name and address, they can probably find out your home phone number (if you have one separate from your cell phone) and call to see if someone in your household can help.  But suppose no one is there.  Perhaps your family member or friend who is named as your health care power of attorney doesn’t live with you, or is out of town and doesn’t check in very often.  Emergency personnel don’t know who they are or how to reach them, and your loved one doesn’t realize that anything has happened to you.

A partial solution is to add a contact on your cell phone under the name ICE, which stands for “in case of emergency.”  If emergency personnel can get into your cell phone, ICE is the first place they will look. But if they don’t have or can’t get into your cell phone, another solution is needed.

Here’s a step everyone can take:  add a credit-card sized piece of paper to your wallet that is titled “In Case of Emergency” and lists names, relationships, and contact information for three contacts. 

For example, mine lists “husband” and gives his name and two phone numbers, and goes on to list “brother” and “sister” with similar information.

Next week’s column offers solutions that help when no one you’ve named can be located.