When “do no harm” is no longer textbook
by Jim Demaine, Md, KevinMD.com, July 7, 2019 A call came about noon a few years ago that a patient I’ll call Stella was being admitted once again. She had come into the ER from her nursing home to receive…
How to Make Doctors Think About Death
Opinion piece by Theresa Brown, hospice nurse. New York Times, April 27, 2019 A hospice nurses argues that lack of time is the main cause of over treatment at end of life. She suggests the development of end-of-life treatment guidelines.…
Deciding When a Life is No Longer Worth Living
by Joanne Faryon inewsource.org A report about the "vent farms" in Coronado, and the helpless people in it. In California, 4,000 men, women and children are being kept alive with machines in special wards in California’s nursing homes. "The default…
Doctor Considers The Pitfalls Of Extending Life And Prolonging Death
Fresh Air, NPR - Jan. 30, 2017 Terry Gross talks with author of "Modern Death" and fellow in cardiology at Duke University Medical Center, Dr. Haider Warraic, about how medicine has changed the end of life. He talks about the…
The end can be sudden in advanced cancer
KevinMd.com Feb. 8, 2016 Many doctors are reluctant to talk about end of life issues. Many families want to avoid the issue altogether and are shocked when the end "suddenly" appears. Read more about doctors' reluctance to talk about end…
The I.C.U. Is Not a Pause Button
Opinion Piece By Kristen McConnell, New York Times, August 26, 2015 A nurse explains dying in an intensive care unit and corrects the impression that being in ICU is a "pause." "When I first realized that in intensive care we…
‘Rational Suicide’ Talk Increasing Among ‘Healthy’ Elderly
by Deborah Brauser Medscape April 08, 2015 Rational suicide is discussed at the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry (AAGP) 2015 Annual Meeting. "Our main focus was on the fact that more and more individuals are expressing the wish to end…
An Impossible Choice
by Joanne Faryon - KPBS Morning Edition This page of video and audio gives you a glimpse of what it is like in California subacute units. One video talks with the wife a man who lived in nursing home for…
Dying the Good Death: The Kate Granger Story
by Lindsey Fitzharris in Medium Kate Granger, a 31-year-old physician who was diagnosed with an aggressive form of sarcoma and given less than 5 years to live decided to forgo chemotherapy. She made her decision based on quality of life.…
Letting Go-What should medicine do when it can’t save your life?
By Atul Gawande - The New Yorker - Aug. 20, 2010 "Our medical system is excellent at trying to stave off death with eight-thousand-dollar-a-month chemotherapy, three-thousand-dollar-a-day intensive care, five-thousand-dollar-an-hour surgery. But, ultimately, death comes, and no one is good at…
What Broke My Father’s Heart
By Katy Butler, New York Times Magazine, June 18, 2010 This article was an influential article and prompted two excellent books by Katy Butler, Knocking on Heaven's Door: The Path to a Better Way of Death, 2013 and The Art…
A Good Death – A Challenge To Law And Medical Ethics
by Rodney Syme, MD What is a good death? Well, it is the antithesis of a bad death. In my view, a good death is not what Philip Aries described as a ' wild death', an unprepared death without peace,…