I tell my mother's story to everyone at the hospital who will listen. I tell them she's signed papers. It looks like she's in pain. It looks like the papers may have had an effect after all. Meanwhile my mother looks so awful I can barely look at her, and she's stopped responding to the attendant's commands.
People have to live.
The ER doctors could not have been persuaded. It doesn't matter what papers you have. We'll meet again. The morning of the third day I go to see her. There's no order on her chart yet.