Tag Archives: Hospice

What Is Palliative Care? An Interview with Dawn Gross

Why palliative care physicians are fairy godmothers, not "Grim Reapers"

Dawn Gross, MD, PhD, is a hospice physician at University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). Her background is in hematology and immunology, and she now works for the hospital’s Palliative Care Service, specializing in treating patients facing life-altering illnesses and … Continue reading

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Franny’s Last Ride by Mike DeStefano

The comedian and storyteller shares his struggle to support his wife at the end of life

Comedian Mike DeStefano died of a heart attack March 6, 2011. In 2007, he appeared with The Moth storytelling organization to tell the story of his wife, Fran, who was dying in hospice after a drug addiction and affliction with … Continue reading

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Beasts of the Southern Wild by Beinh Zeitlin

An imaginative, engaging film about the death of a way of life

In the opening sequence of Beinh Zeitlin’s Beasts of the Southern Wild, a wildly imaginative independent film set on the Louisiana Gulf Coast, a herd of Ozarks, towering beasts that roamed the earth in the days before the Ice Age, … Continue reading

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Talking to Kids Facing Death

Reporter shares the stories of families who have faced this difficult conversation

Last month, Chicago Tribune writer Barbara Brotman was tasked with writing a story about new research presented in Chicago on “a particularly uncomfortable subject” — how to talk to kids and teenagers about their possible death. The research found that … Continue reading

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Two Weeks of Life by Eleanor Clift

Eleanor Clift's memoir examines terminal illness, hospice, and the Terri Schiavo case

Eleanor Clift’s husband, Tom Brazaitis, died in 2005. For years, the Newsweek journalist cared for Tom, who had been diagnosed with kidney cancer in 1999, and towards the end she took him home to spend his final days in his … Continue reading

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My Mother, Your Mother by Dennis McCullough, M.D.

A thorough look at the step-by-step process for the care of elder parents

My mother always told me, “When I get old, put me on an iceberg and leave me for the polar bears.”  I never once took her advice seriously, but after reading Dr. McCullough’s book, I’m starting to reconsider.  All joking … Continue reading

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