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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...

My dad is one of the "Greatest Generation", who was part of the Normandy landing in W.W.II. He's been the strongest man I've ever know. At 73 he could out work any man half his age. There hasn't been anything he couldn't fix or build. He had great foresight for preparing for his elder years. He waited on my mother hand and foot, sacrificing his own health issues, when she was so sick and almost bedfast the last years of her life. In the past eight years his health began deteriorating rapidly. Through eight major surgeries and every complication you...