Bill starting writing stories for his granddaughter when he realized she was having trouble pronouncing certain letters, and he turned them into a book, Stories for Amanda.
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- The Department of Justice is suing the hospice company founded by Florida's Senate president, accusing it of submitting tens ...
As any woman who has lost her mother does, I think of her especially on Mother's Day. In fact, I think I will always consider Mother's Day her day, not mine. And when I think of her life, I also remember the gift of her peaceful death.
This is National Nurses Week, and a perfect moment to highlight the special training, ability and insights that distinguish hospice nurses in truly remarkable ways.
Caregivers are an invaluable volunteer army drafted into service to help loved ones remain at home rather than in facilities and institutions.
The first principle of palliative medicine is to relieve the pain and other symptoms that burden people living with serious illness -- in short, to help people feel better.
Stone soup is simple: Each person contributes just one ingredient to a pot containing water and a stone. Through cooperation and involvement of an entire community, a nourishing, delicious meal for all is created. Today in Soweto, South Africa we had the privilege of seeing this children's story come to life.
I can't say that my father was ready for death or that any of us was ready for him to go. But I believe that thanks to hospice care, and some miracle of timing and life force and will that I will never quite understand, my dad's death was as beautiful as a death can be.
My mother is in her last days of life. Dialysis has ended. We wait for the inevitable. On this holiest of weekends, we wait. We sit vigil, waiting for her to die, waiting for Jesus to become Christ, waiting for the women to find an empty tomb, waiting to give my mother to her eternal rest.
Even in her decline, she is still teaching us lessons about life. She has been told she can stop dialysis at any time and end this roller coaster we are on, but Mom isn't ready for that. She has more to experience and to share with us.
You may have heard the word "hospice" in the news a lot lately. This isn't a surprise as we watch America's frail elderly population surge to unprecedented levels. Naturally, our country is talking about advanced illness care more audibly than ever before.
This latest study reveals not only abject failure, but lost ground as well. It's up to the people -- those approaching the end of life and those who love them -- to prevent medical habit from stealing a peaceful death.
I wrote Come Back Early Today: A Memoir of Love, Alzheimer's and Joy as a love story. It's about the powerful 30-year relationship I had with Edward Theodoru, a delightfully colorful, wickedly eccentric Romanian gentleman and scholar.
One of the most beautiful books of the Bible, Esther is the only one that doesn't specifically refer to God. Esther's story defies moralizing, but perhaps one of its lessons is that God's hiddenness is not God's absence. Even in the face of death.
In this post, I'd like to explore the necessity, challenges and goals of having end-of-life conversations once the diagnosis of a life-limiting condition is confirmed.
Joshua DuBois leaving the Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships, Obama will travel to Israel in March and more reads in today's religion headlines.
Good news for poor people in Louisiana who are dying: Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) won't cut off funding for your end-of-life hospice care, his administratio...
Caring for the ones who had been so capable is not easy. All my life I've asked God to lead me to where he needed me. Again and again he's answered that prayer. But this time there were no easy answers.
We know that if there is one thing that everybody in this wide, diverse and sometimes contentious world shares, it's their mortality. That is something that all of us will go through with the people we love and then ultimately with ourselves.
Be supportive of the way the person chooses to handle the holidays. Some may wish to follow traditions; others may choose to avoid customs of the past and do something new. It's okay to do things differently.
Healing takes place not when death is forestalled, but when life is embraced and affirmed in its entirety, from beginning to end. When doctors can fully understand the nature of death and dying, they will become the true healers that are desperately needed in this world.
You have introduced the idea of having a family conversation, or a series of conversations, about end-of-life wishes and goals. Mom and Dad are on board, the adult children want to know more, and everyone is ready to take the next steps to ensure wishes are followed. Now what?
This question originally appeared on Quora. By Andrew Young Shin, Pediatric Cardiologist It doesn't change my focus or delivery of care. Thi...
An end-of-life discussion is not a conversation likely to arise spontaneously on its own. Whether you are an aging parent or a concerned adult child, you must make the first move. Seize any opportunity to begin the conversation.
Maria fulfilled a profound purpose in those last few months of her life; she taught me the soul cannot be diminished by any illness or injury that damages the physical body.
