Jacob "Jack" Kevorkian Dies; Death With Dignity Proponent Remembered

Jacob "Jack" Kevorkian, otherwise known as "Doctor Death" fell victim Friday to a blood clot that released from his leg and lodged in his heart, assumed to be complications of kidney problems for which he was admitted to a hospital for in May of this year. He was 83 years of age.

Kevorkian is most known for serving eight years of a 10-to-25-year prison sentence for second-degree murder starting in 1999. This resulted from a videotape he had made on September 17, 1998 which depicted the voluntary euthanasia of Thomas Youk, with the doctor's assistance by administering lethal injection.

via medicalnewstoday.com

Though his methods were controversial, the attention he prompted to the issue of "end of life" choices and "right to die" will only benefit patients as government agencies and lawmakers were forced to address the issues.

Andrew Lopez, RN @nursefriendly

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Sarah's Tears by Tony Collins, LVN, Inspirational Nursing Stories

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Late one December night on the cancer ward the halls were quiet and solemn, the patients were asleep and most of the visitors were gone. The nurses were gathered about the nurse's station preparing for shift change. Sarah, one of the nurses, was especially tired, having worked seven straight 12 hour days. The kids had needs, her husband had been laid off, and the house payment was due. What kept her going was that in January she was going to find a new job. After ten years of answering call lights, working short staffed, putting up with constant administrative changes, she had decided that it was not worth the effort anymore.

PING. PING. PING. Sara angrily looked at the call light box, "Good grief!" The patient was a seventy-year-old woman. Sarah had been to her room at the end of the hall at least fifteen times. Angrily she started down the hall.

On her way, she suddenly stopped. She stood motionless as a soft voice wafted out of room 235.

"And then one day I'll cross the river; I'll fight life's final war with pain; And then as death gives way to victory, I'll see the lights of glory and I'll know He lives."

Tears welled up in her eyes as she listened and thought about the young woman in that room -- a thirty-five year old mother of two with cancer, with only a week to live, perhaps days. Sarah stood there, with tears in her eyes, remembering how this young terminal woman had such peace. The patient would speak to everyone who came into her room and she would smile even in her pain and took the time to share her faith and let people know the reason for her peace was a faith in God. All the nurses who had been around her commented on her strength and how they had felt peace and calm after talking with this exceptional young woman..

"Because He lives, I can face tomorrow; Because He lives, all fear is gone Because I know who holds the future, Life is worth all the living, just because He lives."

Unstoppable tears flowed as Sarah stood a few moments more, but the tears had taken on a newness. No longer were they tears of sadness for this young woman but tears of renewal that washed away the disappointment and disillusionment of her job, and the fear about the future.

Sarah started down the hall to answer the call light, but she was no longer going to check on some pestering old woman. She was going to the room of a patient, a person, a fellow human in need. Sarah no longer looked to January so she could quit -- she looked to her next shift when she would again have the opportunity to serve her fellow man. Sarah left work with a new outlook on life. She had a rekindling of the spirit of service that had motivated her to become a nurse. Those fires had almost died, but for a young terminal woman who had the desire to be of service to her fellow man even unto death.

This is a reminder to me that the reason that we are on this earth at all is to be of service to each other. Christ said it best when He said, "Greater love hath no man than this, that he lay down his life for his brother."

-- by Tony Collins

via inspirationalnursing.com

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Quality of Death and Dying in Patients who Request Physician-Assisted Death - Journal of Palliative Medicine

Background: Physician-assisted death (PAD) was legalized in 1997 by Oregon's Death with Dignity Act (ODDA). Through 2009, 460 Oregonians have died by lethal prescription under the ODDA.

Objective: To determine whether there was a difference in the quality of the dying experience, from the perspective of family members, between 52 Oregonians who received lethal prescriptions, 34 who requested but did not receive lethal prescriptions, and 63 who did not pursue PAD.

Design: Cross-sectional survey.

Measurements: Family members retrospectively rated the dying experience of their loved one with the 33 item Quality of Death and Dying Questionnaire (QODD).

via liebertonline.com

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Faith Friends by Nancy Haygood, Hospice Poems, Stories of Death and Dignity

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I don’t want to say goodbye
Don’t want you to see me cry
But in the end, that sweet by and by
We will meet again.

You remind me, Lee, of me
A bound-up soul, set free
Life struggles overcome
A chance to bask in the sun.

All too short, this life seems
But in not-so-distant dreams
We know this fading world
Is but a path to the King.

Our King, He came, like me
In humanness, to be
Then hung upon that tree
To set us free.

He knew hot tears and cool springs
The love that friendship brings
Now he hears angels sing
So will we.

You and I,
We’ve known sweet-smelling children, rough-bearded men
Giggles with girlfriends, aloneness, amends,
Fear beyond reason, and joy in its season
Love is the reason. Amen.

-- Nancy Haygood, © 2006

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Palliative care can lead to higher quality of live and longer survival

by John Schumann, MD

Every once in awhile amidst the weekly deluge of medical articles comes a show-stopper that has the potential to change the way we practice.

Rarer yet is the article that not only changes how we practice, but calls into question why we do what we do.

This recent article from the New England Journal of Medicine is just such an article. Before you bolt, let me simplify it for you.

Here’s the quick take.

The authors enrolled 150 patients with advanced lung cancer and split them up between usual care, which included chemotherapy, and an intervention arm, in which they received the same standard of care treatment plus early enrollment in palliative care.

via kevinmd.com

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Death in a hospital is not always comfortable, KevinMD.com

In America, too many people die in the hospital.

I don’t mean that they die due to medical error or incompetence, though that’s always a hot topic of discussion amongst doctors, researchers, administrators, and regulators.

What I mean is that if you ask most people, they say they’d rather die at home, surrounded by their loved ones, drifting off to sleep painlessly after having had last rites administered (feel free to plug in your religious/atheistic ritual of choice here).

Why, then, do so many who want this type of death instead die medically, here in the hospital, undergoing painful treatment and the deprivations and degradations of medical care?

The answer has both simple and complex aspects. But I’ll start by sharing something that most medical professionals believe:

When my time comes, the last place I want to be is in the hospital. Don’t get me wrong–I like GlassHospital–it’s a good place to work, teach, and learn. But when the grim reaper is calling my name, I want to be as far away from here as I can.

No IVs. No needle sticks to test my blood. No waking me up to check vital signs every shift. No hospital food. No fluorescent lights.

No feeding tubes; no bladder catheters (ouch!); for Heaven’s sake, no breathing machines (‘mechanical ventilators’).

via kevinmd.com

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The cost of keeping the terminally ill alive, KevinMD.com

Last year, Medicare paid $55 billion just for doctor and hospital bills during the last two months of patients’ lives.

And it has been estimated that 20 to 30 percent of these medical expenses may have had no meaningful impact. Most of the bills are paid for by the federal government with few or no questions asked. This statistic is from a 60 Minutes story on “The Cost of Dying” and is one reason our healthcare system is in trouble.

Modern medicine has become so good at keeping the terminally ill alive by treating the complications of underlying disease that the inevitable process of dying has become much harder and is often prolonged unnecessarily.  The way we set up the system right now, primary care physicians don’t have time to spend an hour with you, see how you respond, if they wanted to adjust your medication. So, the easiest thing for everybody up the stream is to admit you to the hospital. And once someone is admitted to the hospital they’re likely to be seen by a dozen or more specialists who will conduct all kinds of tests, whether they’re absolutely essential or not

via kevinmd.com

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