The Safe Harbor Palliative Care Unit at the Birmingham VAMC had been open for a few years when Carol was admitted. Donna, “We just got a call from the Medical…
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I’m jealous! All around me I hear people speaking in different languages. They graciously switch to English but I wish I spoke another language fluently. My Spanish allows me to…
Ms. Griffiths was the doyen of her local Methodist Church. Always a smile, a compliment, asking after family, a basket with freshly baked bread. Today I hardly recognized her. Her…
Have you read Sam Shem’s The House of God? I am not sure I would recommend it but…. you should know about this book. Many hospitals were started by and…
I am extremely grateful that I chose to do the Hospice/Palliative Care rotation. Throughout this month, I have learned much more than I anticipated, and it definitely wasn’t all about…
Last week another person with chronic Hepatitis C and hepatocellular carcinoma was seen by the Palliative Care team. There was a lot of discussion of new treatments, such as tumor…
“The Warden wants to talk with you!” I don’t get a phone call from the Warden of the Penitentiary very often. “What could this possibly be about?” I picked up…
My church recently celebrated the nonagenarians within the congregation—lovingly deemed the VIPs, Very Inspiring Persons—and I was amazed to learn that we have twenty members ninety years old and above!…
Dax Cowart died last month at the age of 71. Wow. This is the end of a life that has challenged so many of us in bioethics. His legacy is…