‘No Intubation’: Seniors Fearful of COVID-19 Are Changing Their Advance Directives
Last month, Minna Buck revised a document specifying her wishes should she become critically ill. “No intubation,” she wrote in large letters on the form, making sure to include the date and her initials. Buck, 91, had been following the news about COVID-19. She knew her chances of surviving a serious bout of the illness […]
Sheltered at Home, Families Broach End-of-Life Planning
Long before she contracted COVID-19 at a Kirkland, Washington, nursing home, Barbara Dreyfuss made sure to document the wishes that would govern how she died. The medical directive she signed last year at the Life Care Center outside Seattle called for no resuscitation if her heart stopped, no machine to help her breathe. The 75-year-old, […]
POLST Orders Help Patients Advocate for Their End-of-Life Care
My grandfather did not want to die. From hospital to home, back to hospital and finally to hospice, he angrily fought against the realities of the cancer that would eventually end his life. Many years before his battle with cancer, I remember sitting in the car with him, discussing assisted deaths. I was home for […]
Study examines aggressive end-of-life care
Source: University of North Carolina School of Medicine Advanced cancer patients receive aggressive care at high rates at the end of life In the last month of their lives, younger cancer patients continued to be hospitalized and receive other aggressive treatment at high rates, a University of North Carolina Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center-led study found. […]
Videos can help you make end-of-life care choices
By Christopher J. Gearon, Kiplinger’s Retirement Report Physicians are often uncomfortable discussing end-of-life care options with terminally ill patients. Even when doctors raise the issue, they may gloss over the details. With little knowledge of their choices, patients often agree to aggressive treatment even when there’s no hope of survival. A series of new videos […]
End-of-Life Care: The Conversation That Can’t Wait
By Heidi Lading Kiec Winston Churchill once said, “Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.” This quote, found in many leadership books, is applicable to a host of situations, but it’s especially relevant to individuals and their loved ones facing end-of-life […]
