Britney's Medical and Legal Dramas Continue

Yesterday Britney Spears left the UCLA Medical Center psychiatric ward where she has spent the past week, although she still must rely on her father, Jamie Spears, to make decisions concerning her estimated $40 million estate. Earlier this week the California courts granted him temporary control, called a conservatorship, over the pop-star’s affairs. At the time Spears was under observation at the Stewart & Lynda Resnick Neuropsychiatric Hospital.

In order to institute a conservatorship, a judge must determine a person is unable to take care of themselves or their finances. Hearings to determine if Jamie will retain his authority over his daughter’s world resume next week. For the moment elder Spears is authorized to make his daughter’s medical, financial and legal decisions, including who can visit her.

One banned visitor is Spears’ longtime companion and manager, Sam Lufti whom Spear’s mother Lynne accused, in a successful restraining order request, of drugging her daughter with up to “10 pills a day,” including the anti-psychotic medications Seroquel (AZN) and Risperdal (JNJ). Lynne also claims he cut Britney’s phone lines. Lufti in turn told Usmagazine.com that Britney’s parents, who are divorced, will not run her world for long. “They’re never gonna be able to rule her forever.” he said.

You might not be planning for a trip to the psych ward, but what if an unforeseen health-related emergency, such a stroke, rendered you temporarily incapacitated? Who would make your medical and financial decisions? If a medical catastrophe strikes, you should be armed with a medical directive that will help dictate what course of treatment you agree to undergo. It might be hard to consider now, but deciding whether you want to be sustained on a feeding tube or ventilator could possibly save your loved ones some significant pain and heartache.