As an experienced patient advocate—I served as medical proxy for each of my parents during their terminal hospitalizations and for my sister during a midlife curative hospitalization—I’m comfortable asking myriad questions in an effort to uncover medical and procedural facts. Since my family tries to act prudently when buying health treatment services, probing questioning is […]
e-Patient Dave deBronkart’s blogpost chronicling his ongoing journey to find affordable prices for his healthcare needs is particularly pithy because it begins to untangle the ratsnest otherwise known as “healthcare shopping” today. By “ratsnest” I mean what any of us may encounter when trying to find the best value—that is, price for quality services—when we need […]
This is a fascinating examination of issues around what it is to be dead, in the context of organ donation and harvesting. Terry Gross’s Fresh Air single-show, successive interviews with author Dick Teresi (The Undead) and transplant surgeon Richard Freeman, MD. Quicker to read but can be listened to. Do it.
On March 11 2012 Dr. Peter Goodwin ended his life under the law he helped create—the Oregon Death With Dignity Act. A short video interview with him is available here. Self-directed dying, for those diagnosed by several physicians as terminal with 6 months or less to live, offers a peaceful demise to those who are […]
This blog post is especially for my fellow patient advocate independent authors. An an author, new distribution platforms interest me. As do new Macintosh/Apple content creation tools, because I’m a Macintosh user since 1987, when I began converting my paper and wax graphic design operation to the desktop. Apple yesterday released a new book authoring […]
In 2003 the renowned palliative nurse JoAnn Lynne published a set of 3 graphs. They’re called End of Life Trajectories; you can see them here. They depict how 3 of the primary causes of death in America unfold over time; the Y (up) axis is vitality and the X (across) axis is some amount of […]
Steve Jobs, founder of Apple Computer, died this afternoon at age 56, several years younger than I. In my second career, as a graphic designer (which I occasionally practice today), I was used to using computers to generate type. Those systems were proprietary to the printing trade. I typed away, then processed lengths of photosensitive […]
I’m finessing a plenary session I’ll be doing in a few days titled, at the conference’s request, “How to Avoid a Terminal Hospitalization” (that’s The Option to Die in PEACE by another name). This one focuses like a laser on its topic, altho of necessity I’ll begin with as condensed a version as I can […]
. One impetus towards patient-advocates focuses on stories. Our stories. Stories of harm, shock, abuse, neglect, pain, suffering, injury, death, and their outcome, including our phoenix-like rise from them. I perceive a dark side to storytelling in the context of patient-family members relaying their stories to audiences of medical professionals. On the IHI Patient Activist […]
. In order to achieve a peaceful death, patient-families, that is all of we citizens, actually need to do something. “Something” is a range of things comprising a bit of study and contemplation. I’ll share what I consider to be the most important aspects. 1. Become familiar with how we die in a technological society. […]
