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The Ronald Reagan U.C.L.A. Medical Center, one of the nation’s most highly regarded academic hospitals, has earned a reputation as a place where doctors will go to virtually any length and expense to try to save a patient’s life. “If you come into this hospital, we’re not going to let you die,” said Dr. David T. Feinberg, the hospital system’s chief executive. Yet that ethos has made the medical center a prime target for critics in the Obama administration and elsewhere who talk about how much money the nation wastes on needless tests and futile procedures. They like to note...

Heightened efforts by the Drug Enforcement Administration to crack down on narcotics abuse are producing a troubling side effect by denying some hospice and elderly patients needed pain medication, according to two Senate Democrats and a coalition of pharmacists and geriatric experts.

After World War II, the U.S. government invested an enormous amount of money in medicine; medical research, medical procedures and medical technologies. This investment made contemporary scientific medicine into American medicine, characterized by a continuing flow of new treatment possibilities. These advances raised all kinds of ethical questions. Some were personal and individual, others were social and political. Both type questions are addressed by a new academic discipline called bioethics. The first attempt to develop a scientific medicine took place in Greece in the 5th century B.C. It was called Hippocratic medicine. Closely linked with this first scientific medicine was...

When former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin introduced “death panels” to the health care overhaul debate vernacular via Facebook in early August, she showed herself to be a brilliant idiot. Technically, Palin’s claim of a panel of “downright evil” government bureaucrats rationing health care based on Americans’ “level of productivity” is obviously idiotic. There is not, and never will be, some mythical jack-booted panel of government pinheads, rubber stamps in hand, deciding who shall live and who shall die. As such, Palin was deservedly roasted. Tactically, however, Palin’s move was pure brilliance: in but a few keystrokes she synthesized the underlying...

They say revenge is a dish best served cold. But few would go as far as Megan Swanston, who waited until after her death to get back at her three daughters for trying to throw her out of her home... Instead of sharing her £20,000 estate between them it emerged yesterday that she changed her will to give all the money to the hospice where she spent her last months. In the document, made public yesterday following her death at 84, she states: 'I have not made any provision in my will for my daughters because of the way they...

A chaplain at Hospice by the Sea in Boca Raton has resigned, she says, over a ban on use of the words "God" or "Lord" in public settings. Chaplains still speak freely of the Almighty in private sessions with patients or families but, the Rev. Mirta Signorelli said: "I can't do chaplain's work if I can't say 'God' — if I'm scripted." Hospice CEO Paula Alderson said the ban on religious references applies only to the inspirational messages that chaplains deliver in staff meetings. The hospice remains fully comfortable with ministers, priests and rabbis offering religious counsel to the dying...

Salem, OR (LifeNews.com) -- The number of assisted suicides in Oregon has increased 30 percent in the last two years and euthanasia activists themselves may have provided the reasons why. It appears members of Compassion & Choices have infiltrated the hospice system and are urging patients to kill themselves.LifeNews.com reported on the increase earlier this month, but a Compassion & Choice press release last week provided an interesting take on the report.The group said that "nearly 100% of terminally ill individuals using the law in 2008 were enrolled in hospice.""Hospice enrollment among those using the Act increased to 98%,...

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- In defending members of his euthanasia group who may have engaged in killing more than 200 people via assisted suicide, a lawyer for the Final Exit Network compared hospice with assisted suicide. Leaders of hospice groups that provide care to terminally ill patients are upset by the remarks. Michael Kaminkow, who is defending two of the Final Exit Network assisted suicide defendants, has engaged in what some are calling slander against the hospice system. "Whatever happened here is no more than what happened in a hospice," Kaminkow said of those who have been arrested in connection...

Where is the outrage over the destruction of (what is left of) Medicare and the debt we owe to veterans? I'm afraid that we're not talking about "Medicare for all," or even "Medicaid for all." We're talking about County Clinic for all. For a look at the proposed cuts in cost for Medicare, take a look a this table. Consider that plan to "reduce costs for re-admissions" and the "bundling" of hospital and outpatient costs after a hospitalization. That means that Medicare will only pay a flat fee to the hospital for any hospitalization and follow up care after the...

OLYMPIA, Wash. – Terminally ill patients with less than six months to live will soon be able to ask their doctors to prescribe them lethal medication in Washington state. But even though the "Death with Dignity" law takes effect Thursday, people who might seek the life-ending prescriptions could find their doctors conflicted or not willing to write them. Many doctors are hesitant to talk publicly about where they stand on the issue, said Dr. Tom Preston, a retired cardiologist and board member of Compassion & Choices, the group that campaigned for and supports the law.

WAUPUN, WI — At 51, he looks two decades older. His thin body is swallowed up by the afghan that covers his bed. The blanket's vibrant colors, and the powder-blue paint on the walls, make his gaunt face look even paler. His chest is sunken, his limbs are fragile and doctors just found two new fractures in his spine. He is in some pain but says he's at peace in this place. "I'm very comfortable here," he said in a voice one must strain to hear. "I wouldn't wish this on anybody or anything, but I would never get treated...

Linda Burhans Home Go Local Tampa Bay Florida Good Night & God Bless Linda Burhan's book is filled with humor and heartfelt inspiration to aide anyone facing the challenge of caring for a loved one at the end of life. her story offers us hope for human strength and understanding of weaknesses during a difficult time. From the altar of God's House, the monsignor proclaimed, "Jo McCauley was a force of nature!" And she was. She was a breeze that brought laughter to everyone she met. She was a whirlwind of a volunteer and mother. She was the wind that...

OVERVIEW Like many others, I believed pro-life issues only concerned the saving of the innocent unborn from abortion. However, my naiveté regarding the sanctity of life topic was clearly evident after I learned about what is taking place in our country involving the care of those approaching life's end. Now, when I talk about life's end, I'm including the terminally ill, elderly, infirm and those whose circumstances have led them to face death from afar or while approaching the threshold of death's door. I learned of a series of articles written and edited by Bill Beckman, Executive Director, Illinois Right...

SMYRNA, Ga. --Smyrna police have charged a live-in caretaker with murder in the death of a 63-year-old woman who they say was left lying on the bedroom floor for days. Police arrested 42-year-old Madonna Whitus on Monday. She also faces charges of violating protection of disabled adults and financial transaction card fraud. Police say Kathie Durant, who had a heart condition requiring a caregiver, fell out of bed around December 2nd and fractured her arm. Police say the caregiver allowed Durant to stay on the bedroom floor of her townhouse for days and gave her only milkshakes and soft drinks....

Hundreds of hospice providers across the country are facing the catastrophic financial consequence of what would otherwise seem a positive development: their patients are living longer than expected. Over the last eight years, the refusal of patients to die according to actuarial schedules has led the federal government to demand that hospices exceeding reimbursement limits repay hundreds of millions of dollars to Medicare. The charges are assessed retrospectively, so in most cases the money has long since been spent on salaries, medicine and supplies. After absorbing huge assessments for several years, often by borrowing at high rates, a number of...

Sorry for long title and caps. I am typing thru tears. My mom is dying of pancreatic cancer. She raised my son and I got thru to Red Cross & Hospice and they approved it. Military is denying it saying she is not loco parentis. On top of that nobody knows how to do the paper work. My son is her baby (30 Year Old Marine) and she is all she wants. Seems to be holding on for him. She just took a drastic turn for the worst yesterday. I need a congressman/senator anyone who I can call and try...

<p>CAMDEN, Ala. — Hundreds of hospice providers across the country are facing the catastrophic financial consequence of what would otherwise seem a positive development: their patients are living longer than expected.</p> <p>Over the last eight years, the refusal of patients to die according to actuarial schedules has led the federal government to demand that hospices exceeding reimbursement limits repay hundreds of millions of dollars to Medicare.</p>

Hey all. King Vanity is not doing well and we have had lab work done in home ....meaning no treatable health care needs. He is a LeveL 5 cEREBRAL pALSY LIVING 28 YRS. Those that know him understand he has been going south this last year. I just got a few in home lecture series for him as he can not be in public with all the machines in a normal lecture hall. Brass is last night he took a bad turn and because of his home hospice meaning me Mom going all the way..... We are blessed to have...

Not every caregiver for a family member who is nearing the end of life will have the kind of experience that “chilled” Emery Biro when his father died last year.But, as a Sept. 14 Vatican document acknowledges, the experience is becoming all too common.End-of-life decisions are being influenced by a culture that is increasingly driven by cost motives and increasingly taking on a kind of moral authority that Christians believe is the province of God alone. “Dying isn’t dead; it’s living,” said bioethicist Wesley Smith, but many hospice centers and palliative care professionals seem to overlook that truism today.On Sept....

My mother is in the end stage of liver disease and will be moved to a Hospice house in a couple of days. She has asked for pallative care only and is ready for death. Please pray that she has a peaceful death.

Sunlight trickles in from the blinds as Lucy Spyer crouches and takes Hazel McGuiness' hand. "Do you feel anything?" asks Spyer. McGuiness hesitates, then replies, "Not really." McGuiness was born and raised in Elizabeth. Today, at 93 years of age, she resides in Brighton Gardens of Mountainside, an assisted-living community in Union County. Spyer, a volunteer from Toms River, is performing reiki, a gentle "laying on of hands," purported to be calming and healing. Ten minutes later, McGuiness says, "I feel warm." Dan Hausser, another reiki practitioner, lays his hands on McGuiness' knees. "I have to warn you, I'm not...

PROVIDENCE, R.I. - Oscar the cat seems to have an uncanny knack for predicting when nursing home patients are going to die, by curling up next to them during their final hours. His accuracy, observed in 25 cases, has led the staff to call family members once he has chosen someone. It usually means they have less than four hours to live. "He doesn't make too many mistakes. He seems to understand when patients are about to die," said Dr. David Dosa in an interview. He describes the phenomenon in a poignant essay in Thursday's issue of the New England...

On a November day just before Thanksgiving in 2005, Joan Rademacher, a 72-year-old woman with breast cancer, sat at a kitchen table in Madison with her hospice nurse, drinking tea and discussing the progression of the disease. The bumpy, reddened skin that at first had been contained to Rademacher's chest had crept to her back and arms. It looked like a rash but was in fact the tumor spreading. "Are you in pain right now?" asked Cathy Sutter, the hospice nurse. • Post a comment "No, not physical pain, emotional pain." "I don't think you've ever said that," Sutter said....

A young disabled man who receives care for his life-limiting illness at a hospice run by a nun spoke yesterday of his decision to use a prostitute to experience sex before he dies. Sister Frances Dominica gave her support to 22-year-old Nick Wallis, who was born with Duchenne muscular dystrophy. Sufferers usually die by their thirties. Mr Wallis told staff at the Douglas House hospice in Oxford that he wanted to experience sexual intercourse. He explained that he had hoped to form an intimate and loving relationship with a woman, but his disability had acted as a barrier. He told...

E-Mail Story | Print Story December 03. 2006 6:59AM A tribute to a loving husband Editor's note: The following was written by Gail Woods of Hobart, Ind., about how her Granger son-in-law treated his dying wife. This is the first in a series. On Oct. 23, Gregg McCauley's wife was taken from him after a long battle with progressive multiple sclerosis. The mother of an 8-year-old son, Geodi Woods McCauley had encouraged her husband to go back to school and pursue a career. After his graduation from the University of Las Vegas, he made the decision not to utilize his...

Doctors and nurses from anywhere in the world interested in palliative home care programs are welcome to apply for a free of charge training at the Warsaw Home Care Hospice for children. This highly specialized institution offers courses in pediatric palliative care, conducted in Polish, English or Russian. Doctor Tomasz Dangel, founder and head of the hospice wants to spread the idea of home care for both disabled and dying children: 'Our hospice offers one month individual training both for doctors and nurses who would like to learn pediatric palliative home care. We offer accommodation and trainig free of charge....

Editor's Note: This is the fifth in a series of columns first posted on the Illinois Right to Life Committee's (IRLC) website [http://www.illinoisrighttolife.org/] written by Bill Beckman, IRLC's executive director. The RFFM.org re-posting of the column discusses hospice care and gives individuals and families the tools they need to choose a good hospice care provider. This series warns readers about end of life issues and the need to monitor the care given to loved ones. The IRLC director also describes what readers can do to protect themselves from the looming culture of death which permeates the thinking of many medical...

A friend of mine on LiveJournal (an online diary of sorts), Matt, recently lost his father to a long illness at the relatively young age of 61. He (the father) died peacefully in a hospice a few days ago, and my friend, only 24, was there vigilantly, lovingly. His post about the experience is one of those rare, truly bittersweet ones. I wept, but I smiled. I hope my kid(s) can say that kind of goodbye to me one day (albeit I hope I make it to a riper, older age), that I can say such a fond farewell to...

(AP) ATLANTA Former NFL fullback Craig "Ironhead" Heyward died Saturday after a 7 1/2-year fight with brain cancer, his son's high school football coach said. He was 39. Heyward spent 11 seasons in the NFL with New Orleans, Chicago, Atlanta, St. Louis and Indianapolis. The former University of Pittsburgh star rushed for a career-high 1,083 yards for the Falcons in 1995. He played for the Bears during the 1993 season. "I got a call at 4:30 or 5 that he had passed away," said Blair Armstrong, who coached Heyward's son, Cameron, at Peachtree Ridge High School. "He was in a...

MILTON, Mass. Renowned columnist Art Buchwald has refused dialysis, and it's only a matter of time, maybe a short time, before he dies. For a man awaiting The Reaper, he's in unusually fine fettle. I spent two days by his side to find Buchwald doesn't see himself as courageous, nor does he feel shored up by supernatural spiritual strength. To fade away naturally is the decision he made when faced with the alternative of being hooked up to a dialysis machine three times a week, for five hours at a stretch for the rest of his life. He said, "I...

A local hospice wants to know who is trying to sell Terri Schiavo's hospital gown on eBay. The eBay listing claims the gown was owned by Schiavo, the Clearwater woman who died 13 days after being removed from a feeding tube last year after a long court battle. Most people watched the saga of Schiavo's life and death and saw families hurting. But somewhere in America, one person watched and saw the chance to make a buck. The listing popped up on eBay Monday with the title, "Terri Schiavo's hospital gown." The seller claims the gown was worn by Schiavo...

WICHITA, Kan. —'Can I do this?' his mother agonized, knowing one of her newborns would not live. But for 43 hours, he was hers to cherish. She wanted to honor her son, to celebrate his life, however short. That's why she had refused an abortion, even after doctors told her that her little boy would be born without a brain. Now he was here, squirming in his blankets... The specialists she consulted offered Danielle a "selective reduction": They could abort the malformed twin. That might give her a better chance of carrying the healthy baby to term, but there was...

Article Last Updated: 12/19/2005 08:18 AM a denver post special report Letting go: Dylan's last days Two parents face an agonizing test of faith and love for their son By Kevin Simpson Denver Post Staff Writer DenverPost.com Dave Walborn lifted his son upright, all 32 pounds of him, slipped one hand behind his lolling head and gazed into the open but vacant blue eyes. He spoke out loud the words that would move him and the boy's mother, Kerri Bruning, one step closer to an excruciating decision. "Dylan, it's OK if you want to go," he said. "I don't want...

SEMINOLE – Death and dying, hospice, palliative care, advanced directives, living wills and bereavement are among the end-of-life issues to be presented by the Applied Ethics Institute of St. Petersburg College at the college’s Digitorium on the Seminole Campus on Thursday, Nov. 17, 7 to 9 p.m. The free forum will be moderated by Mary Tittle, Ph.D., RN, College of Nursing, St. Petersburg College and begin with presentations from David A. Weiland, M.D., The Hospice of the Florida Suncoast; Patricia Thieleman, Ph.D., RN, College of Nursing, St. Petersburg College; and Hanna Osman, Ph.D., College of Public Health, University of South...

This is a free messageboard supported by We Care Hospice of coastal Mississippi. Please visit it to post words of encouragements, support, etc. Thanks for all you do.

Floriduh Voter had a serious car accident this afternoon on 66th St. by Hospice and is lucky to be alive. FV's car went airborne after being hit and there were no brakes. She flew north onto a median and the car wouldn't stop - something told her to put the car in park and to take the key out. FV ended up in southward oncoming traffic facing north. Good Samaritans directed traffic around her car. (FV lost downforce when the impact took out the back windshield). The guy who hit FV was a half block south with the cops and...

Despite the attention lavished on Cindy Sheehan by the media, none of these "journalists" have bothered to ask her about her group--the Gold Star Families For Peace. If you will check out their website, you will find that it is very short on members. Of those listed besides Cindy Sheehan herself, there is only Linda Bright (who is a member of the group, but not a Gold Star Mother, apparently) and Nadia McCaffrey. That appears to be it. Two Gold Star Mothers. Two members. You may remember Nadia McCaffrey as the woman who got a lot of media attention by...

In rooms less than 25 feet apart, Young's 27-year-old son and Saviano's 48-year-old daughter are near the end. Like Terri Schiavo, the woman who died here about two months ago, they will live out their final hours in Hospice House Woodside. "I can't believe this is happening to me," says Saviano, tears welling up, learning firsthand what hospice is when it isn't on the television, when it isn't in the courts. Two months after the Schiavo case exposed an entire nation to one family's bitter battle with death, the hospice has returned to its normal rhythms. In the past 60...

by Barbara A. Olevitch, Ph.D Other Articles by Barbara A. Olevitch, Ph.D A Right-To-Die Fairy Tale 06/06/2005 Let's analyze a right-to-die fairy tale. You have probably heard this one. It is going around. In This Article...At the Bedside of Life and DeathMortality Is Not PredictableThe Interpretive Framework At the Bedside of Life and Death In the old days, before people became foolishly arrogant because of life-saving technology, they were wiser about the human life cycle and about the inevitability of death. When Grandpa took to his bed, they brought food to him, but when he stopped eating, they wisely realized that...

During the tumultuous final weeks in the life of Terri Schiavo, the young woman who died in a Florida hospice in April, press reports in the nation’s media typically focused on the bitter conflicts among members of her family over her treatment, disagreements among consultants over her state of consciousness, and the increasingly intense arguments in legislatures and the courts over her guardianship. Since her death, the case and the story of her death and dying have been mined for their bearing on our ongoing culture wars and for the debate over the place of “values” in our politics. In...

My dad passed away May 7, 2005, in a peaceful and easy way. I wanted to thank all of you for your prayers and well wishes. I had asked that your prayers be for a quick and easy peace for him and our prayers were answered. He didn't last as long as the doctors and hospice nurses expected, and as much of a shock as it was and as much as I miss him, it was a blessing for his sake. I asked the funeral home for a US flag and military marker to honor his service to our country...

JACKSONVILLE, FL -- 34-year old Scott Thomas married Liza Thomas in 2001. They bought a home and had a baby boy. But one September day, paramedics found Scott on his kitchen floor with several hairline fractures down the left side of his head. Scott spent two months in a coma. Scott's mom, Pamela Patton, says Liza had plans to put Scott in Community Hospice of Northeast Florida, so she filed for temporary guardianship in November and won. For months, Pamela took care of Scott in her home, and worked with him every day. "He watches you, he listens, he smiles,...

Case Similar to Terri Schiavo's Has Wife Deciding Her Husband's Fate by Steven Ertelt LifeNews.com Editor May 15, 2005 Jacksonville, FL (LifeNews.com) -- A case similar to that of Terri Schiavo has a Florida woman holding her husband's fate in her hands. Schiavo's family is calling on Jacksonville resident Eliza Thomas to allow her husband to live. Scott Thomas suffered brain injury in September of 2004 and has since been incapacitated and dependent on others. As with Terri, Scott's wife is seeking to move him to a hospice and remove the gastric tube that provides him with food and water....

Terri Schindler-Schiavo Foundation Urges Wife of Disabled Jacksonville Man to Err on the Side of LifeTo: National DeskContact: Pamela F. Hennessy for the Terri Schindler-Schiavo Foundation, 727-445-1766, phenn@zimp.orgCLEARWATER, Fl., May 14 /Christian Wire Service/ –- The volunteers with the Terri Schindler-Schiavo Foundation, along with the family of Terri Schiavo, are urging Jacksonville, Florida resident, Eliza Thomas, to allow her 34 year old husband to live.The Foundation has learned that Scott Thomas suffered brain injury in September of 2004 and has since been incapacitated and dependent on others. His mother, Pamela Patton, has petitioned the courts for guardianship of the...

ALERT: FLORIDA GOV. JEB BUSH WILL BE ON FOX NEWS CHANNEL TODAY AT 4:00 PM EST. I wonder if he's going to be asked questions about Terri Schiavo! If so, it's about time.

How do we know she is really dead? We couldn't believe any thing else "they" have told us??? In either case, Terri is an eternal being and therefore more alive than she has ever been! American needs to wake up. The state of Florida passed a law, without public being informed, that food and water would be considered "medical treatment", that's how they legally succeeded in denying Terri's basic human right. Tell others. Keep getting the truth out. To honor her and others whose lives are at stake, Lights for Life is and idea for all of those who stand...

Cecil Circuit Court Judge Dexter M. Thompson Jr. decried lawyers' arguments that a child custody hearing should be closed to the public Wednesday, saying such a move would be akin to creating atmospheres similar to historically totalitarian states. The heated exchange came at the start of a hearing in which the county's social services department attempted to retain custody of John Joseph Dougherty's three daughters. Dougherty, 53, faces a second-degree murder charge after police found his brain-damaged wife dead on a mattress, surrounded by moldy food and her own excrement. "Maybe we should be more like Germany or Russia," the...

A grand jury has indicted an Elkton man on a murder charge, six weeks after police found his emaciated wife dead in a bedroom amidst squalid conditions. John Joseph Dougherty, 53, faces a second-degree murder charge in the indictment, handed up last week after the grand jury heard new evidence against him. Dougherty already faced manslaughter and abuse charges in an indictment handed up March 17. The new indictment, unsealed yesterday, included those charges and added the murder charge. Dougherty is accused of causing his wife's death by keeping her locked in a bedroom for six years without access to...

An Elkton man accused of murdering his brain-damaged wife by keeping her locked in a bedroom regained custody of his three daughters Wednesday. Judge Dexter M. Thompson Jr. returned the children to John Joseph Dougherty, 53, after a hearing that lasted all afternoon in circuit court. The county's social services department took custody of the children Feb. 25, after police found their mother dead on a mattress amidst squalid conditions in their Chestnut Drive home.

ELKTON - New evidence against an Elkton man accused of locking up the mother of his children for six years until her death has prompted a Cecil County grand jury to increase the charges against him from manslaughter to second-degree murder. John Joseph Dougherty, 53, told authorities that he started keeping Mary Elizabeth Kilrain, 46, in a bedroom in 1999 after she suffered an aneurysm and became verbally aggressive toward their daughters, according to police. He told authorities that he wanted to keep her from wandering around the house. Kilrain did not have access to food, water and hygiene, prosecutors...