“Oh God!” she groaned, looking upward with tears flooding her cheeks, which were stretched into the shape of agony. Her chest heaved uncontrollably with grief.
“I am so very sorry,” I whispered again while leaning in and stroking her hand.
This is what death notification often looks like and feels like. We doctors should be masters of delivering some of the worst news that could ever be uttered; the worst news that …
By now you’ve surely heard that Medicare is going to pay doctors and other qualified health care providers for advance care planning with patients in 2016.
Aren’t you excited?
OK, so if you are not utterly thrilled or even if you are nonplussed about the whole issue, then let me give you a different perspective on why you should rush into your friendly local doctor’s office to make a living will and …
Medical school and medical training attempt to teach subjective humans how to think and practice medicine objectively. This may be one of the unique fallacies of modern medicine, but that’s a subject for a different blog.
Nevertheless, even in the highly emotional field of emergency medicine I’m usually pretty chill. That is, until someone’s dying, and then all of my equanimity can go flying out the window, for better or worse.
Such …
As I travel around speaking about preparing for peace at the end of life, I have found that there are three pervasive myths about hospice that might cause you to inadvertently rob yourself or your family of a peace-filled end-of-life experience.
So, I am taking on the job of myth-buster to clear the air. Here goes:
Myth #1: Hospice is a place. While hospice can be a place, it is primarily a service. …
Early on in my career I called an Indian internist in the middle of the night to admit a patient to him.
The patient was an 88-year-old female with advanced dementia, a terminal brain disease. She had aspiration pneumonia, which is often the final common pathway of this illness. She was in respiratory failure, in septic shock and was a “full code.”
I can still recall our 4 a.m. conversation:
“Hi, Dr. …
I live and work in the house medicine. You would think that those of us who have chosen this profession would actually know what dying looks like. Furthermore, one would hope that if the doctor could identify dying, he or she could share this with the patient and family (given that this is fairly significant medical information).
I never cease to be amazed that most doctors cannot speak straightforwardly and compassionately about …
Most of the time I feel as though I am running in quicksand attempting to bring patients to a place of grace and dignity in dying. On occasion, there is someone who jerks me out of my quicksand and plants me squarely on stable shore and then proceeds to show me what grace and dignity in the face of death really look and feel like.
Please meet Mr. Jefferson.
Mr. Jefferson had long, lacy …
Mrs. Sandra Jackson knew that she was no Warren Buffet. She knew that she was no Bill Gates. Instead, Mrs. Jackson knew that she worked two jobs, 7 days a week to support her family. So, she hid her breast condition for a better time, another day. She would ask herself, which was more important: going to a doctor or buying her children dinner? For a true mother, the answer …
Many years ago when I was a “young” doctor, moonlighting in the ER of a tiny country town, I had an experience that challenged my training. You see, most young, new doctors often think their training and knowledge is superior to that of “old” doctors, which is often malarkey. A wise and sage old doctor in this tiny country town taught me an important lesson on where and how one …
Standing up from my computer terminal to go see another patient, I caught a glimpse of a small, spindly frail woman being rolled by paramedics into one of my shock and trauma rooms.
Very calmly, I remarked, “That woman is dying.”
The medical student who was rotating with me was unnerved that I would make such a pronouncement out of a mere casual observance, “Oh my goodness! How can you just say …
By typical end-of-life definitions, Nelson Mandela is dying (he is in critical condition after a lengthy hospital stay, and has had multiple recent admissions). Those of us in the healthcare professions see this end-of-life equation all of the time: increasing severity of illness and frequency of hospitalizations plus advanced age almost always equals dying. Now, everyone likes to believe this equation may be altered by hopes, prayers, and modern medicine. …
I write a lot about end of life conversations that go well or have unexpectedly positive outcomes. But to be fair and balanced, you should also hear about the ones that don’t go so well, lest you be led to believe that I have magical powers over my patients and their families.
Here are two of my attempted end of life map conversations that did not go over so well. In fact, …
Throughout the course of my career I have probably been with hundreds of people as they transitioned into and out of death. Although I am familiar with what this journey looks like, I have not yet been privy to the journey myself. Rarely though, I have had the pleasure of listening to someone who has journeyed back from death and arrived with a story to tell. Regardless of your position …
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Please raise your hand if you are not going to die.
If you haven’t found the fountain of youth and we haven’t perfected anti-aging technology, then you my friend are going to die. But you are not alone, so am I, and so is your mother and your father and your brothers and sisters and even little Johnny down the street.
Now that I have reminded you of your own mortality. Does …
When you set out on an unfamiliar journey, you will need a map to get to your desired destination. You may pass landmarks, but not know exactly where you are unless you are able to identify these landmarks on your map. The same is true for the journey of life, and specifically, the path at the end of life.
You may know …
I pulled the stifling surgical mask off my face as I left my last patient’s room. I had just finished suturing a complicated facial laceration and was bone-tired from the evening. Glancing at the clock, I saw that mercifully, my shift was over.
Collapsing into my chair to finish up my charting, I was slightly annoyed when my nurse held a clip-board in front of my face, “Here is your next …
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I just took care of a precious little lady, Ms. King (not her real name), who reminded me that, too often, we doctors are practicing irrational medicine at the end of life. We are like cows walking mindlessly in the same paths; only because we have always done things the same way, never questioning ourselves. What I mean is that we are often too focused on using our routine pills …
The baby boomers, the largest generation in American history, are now almost all in the last third of their lives (if average life expectancy is 78). They have spent the previous, early and middle thirds of their lives transforming cultural ideas, expectations and practices (e.g with the civil rights movement, environmental movement and women’s movement, etc).
The question now is, “Will the baby boomers also transform our cultural ideas, expectations, and …
The names of things often greatly affect our perception. In end of life lexicon, there is a movement underway to change the name of the medical order DNR (do not resuscitate) to AND (allow natural death). No change in the medical reality of what occurs, but a radical change in our emotional reaction to the each term.
DNR: “They withholding a medical intervention” (evoking negative feelings).
AND: “They are giving care that …
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Mr. Omer had once held a position of social prominence, a moral influence on the lives of individuals and communities. Until one year ago. A construction accident changed everything. He suffered injuries that left him in control of only one side of his body and his mind functioning as a 5-year old child.
Most recently, he had resided in an extended rehabilitation nursing facility, until yesterday.
When the nurse tried to arouse …
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