HYPOTHETICAL

Martin is a 76-year-old man who has been married to 72-year-old Martha for many years.They have one adult daughter who has severe, chronic bipolar disorder and one adult son who lives several hours away and has his own spouse and young children.Martin and Martha live in the jurisdiction of Healthacre, a state within the United States, in their own house.They own the house, subject to a mortgage they are paying off.Their only sources of income are Social Security monthly retirement checks, a small monthly pension from Martin's prior employment, and periodic withdrawals from a bank savings account that presently has $ 60,000.They own one auto and the usual household items. Their only health insurance is traditional Medicare Part A and Part B.

Martin retired from his traveling sales job at a large business equipment company two years ago, but became bored and in November, 2019 applied for a part-time in-store sales job with We Got Stuff, a small local business equipment company.We Got Stuff declined to hire Martin, largely based on information provided to the company owner and president by one of We Got Stuff's employees, Joe.Joe is a neighbor of Martin and Martha and is married to Gloria, a billing clerk for the Healthacre Health Clinic, a private health facility serving the Healthacre community.A month earlier, Gloria had mentioned to Joe, "Our neighbor, Martin, was in the Clinic today to see several of our practitioners.Judging by our billing for services we provided him, I'm guessing Martin has some real medical problems."In November, 2019, when Joe saw Martin interviewing for a job with Joe's employer, Joe mentioned Gloria's earlier comments to the company's owner and president.

Back in October, 2019, Martin had been diagnosed by practitioners at the Healthacre Health Clinic with a very early case of Multiple Systems Atrophy (MSA), a rare neurodegenerative disease characterized by tremors, slow movement, muscle rigidity, postural instability (i.e., falling down), lack of coordination, speech changes, incontinence, and eventual dementia.There is no effective treatment.Martin's physical symptoms have gotten progressively worse recently and he has been having an increasing amount of trouble carrying out many of his activities of daily living.Martin is a large man, making it difficult for Martha to assist him in ambulating and otherwise caring for him.

Two weeks ago, Martin fell in his home getting out of bed in the middle of the night and injured himself.Martha called 911, which sent an ambulance that took Martin to the hospital.He was admitted to the hospital, was an inpatient for three days, and was then discharged to Happy Place Nursing Home for post-acute physical and occupational rehabilitation services.

Everyone is now trying to figure out what happens next.Martin is demanding that he be released immediately from Happy Valley so he can go home, where "everything will be just fine" and he can admire his firearms collection.Happy Valley is worried about its own legal and financial liability exposures regarding Martin.Martha is concerned that she will not be able to care physically for Martin's medical and psychiatric needs if he is discharged to home; she is particularly stressed because they cannot afford to hire private caregivers to assist in the home.She, and the Happy Place staff, are afraid that she might become too overwhelmed with her responsibilities, psychologically "lose it," and do something harmful to Martin or herself.

Neither Martin nor Martha have created any type of advance health care directive.

Outline potential alternatives for dealing with this situation, including relevant possible legal considerations and consequences.Indicate other information you would like to have and the legal relevance of such information.How might the current dilemma have been prevented or mitigated?