By PAT STANLEY

Register Staff Writer

How important is it to complete a document detailing your wishes when you die or are incapacitated? "I can say it in a word -- Schiavo," Legal Aid of Napa Valley attorney Kristi Lesnewich told a forum at the Napa Senior Center this week.

Terri Schiavo is the woman whose case galvanized the nation. As the brain-damaged Florida woman lay near death, her husband battled in court with her parents. Michael Schiavo said she would not want to be kept on life support, while her mother and father argued against removing a feeding tube. She had been in a persistent vegetative state since 1990.

"A very private decision was given very public exposure," Lesnewich said.

The tube was eventually removed and she died 13 days later, but the family was torn apart.

"It really can destroy a family," Lesnewich said.

The Napa attorney, whose specialty is elder law, said filling out the paperwork for an advanced health care directive is very important at any age. "People in their 20s should have it," she urged. "You don't know if you are going to be in a car accident and be rendered in a coma or vegetative state. It important for everybody to have one."

Under California law, both a power of attorney and a living will are combined into a single document. Volunteers at the Monday forum helped more than a dozen people, mostly seniors, complete the all-in-one paperwork.

Lesnewich said the documents can direct who will handle the personal affairs of people drafting the documents, whether they want to be kept alive by artificial means, their wishes regarding organ donation and much more. The directives can easily be amended at a later date.

"You authorize someone to make health care decisions for you," she explained. "Your values will be known and respected. Someone you trust will carry out your wishes."

The document, available from Legal Aid of Napa Valley, allows "everybody to be clear what is going to happen to you when you are unable to make decisions any more," she said. "It just doesn't make any sense not to do it."

She said the Schiavo tragedy could have been avoided if a similar document had been signed. ("The family's) energy could have been better spent helping with the grieving rather than the fighting."

Lesnewich said she is willing to address other Napa County organizations on the topic. She can be contacted at 255-4933.

Mark Perkins, director of support services for Hospice of Napa Valley, said his agency is confronted by similar cases on a regular basis. "At any given time there's always some family in our caseload that is struggling with this," he said.

On occasion, he said, directives have been left that are not legally clear. "If it isn't very specific there's still a possibility that the family may be divided. Part of our job is to help facilitate that communication.

"When there is conflict, everyone is trying to do the right thing. But without a directive, sometimes we just don't know what that is."

Noting that Hospice provides "patient-focused care," Perkins said the more hospice and health care providers know what the patient wishes are, "the better we are able to follow them and respect them."