80-year-old's tattoo spells out last wishes

DECORAH, Iowa — Mary Wohlford has informed family members of her wishes should she become incapacitated. She has also signed a living will that hangs on her refrigerator.

But the retired nurse and great-grandmother believes she has removed all potential for confusion: She had the words "DO NOT RESUSCITATE" tattooed on her chest.

"People might think I'm crazy, but that's OK," said Wohlford, 80. "Sometimes the nuttiest ideas are the most advanced."

Medical and legal experts expressed doubts that Wohlford's tattoo would prove binding, either in the emergency room or in the courts, but they gave her credit for originality.

"I'll be darned," said Bob Cowie, chairman of the Iowa Bar Association's probate and trust law section. "There are easier ways to do it than that," such as signing a living will or authorizing a medical power of attorney.

Said Wohlford: "I don't believe in lawyers too much."

Wohlford said she is healthy; in fact, she cares part time for two other women. She said her decision to enter a Galena, Ill., tattoo parlor in February was the culmination of what she witnessed during her almost 30 years in nursing and during the Terri Schiavo controversy last year.

Schiavo was the brain-damaged Florida woman who collapsed in 1990 and never recovered. She died in April 2005 after a judge ordered her feeding tube removed. The case divided her family and the country.

Wohlford said she does not want something like that to happen to her.

If all else fails, if family members can't find her living will or can't face the responsibility of ending life-sustaining measures, she said, then doctors will know her wishes by simply reading her tattoo.

As it was, when she entered Gary's Professional Tattooing Studio, the employee balked, saying he wasn't sure it would be ethical. Shop owner Gary Lietz said he, too, was reluctant, but eventually gave in.

Wohlford even talked him into a senior-citizen discount.