“He knew it was his time a month ago. We were sitting at the kitchen table, and he told me he couldn’t feel half his face. He kept tapping the left side and saying he couldn’t feel anything. I knew he had a stroke because my daughter …
Category: Palliative care
A patient gave this physician her humanity back
I am a physician. We are always taught to see our patients as more than their state of illness or diagnosis. “Speak to the patient,” “listen,” “look them in the eye,” “do not put one foot out the door,” t…
What anticipatory grief feels like
An excerpt from A Caregiver’s Love Story. After Bill was given his terminal diagnosis of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and the bloody nose scare, I began to worry about the future. It was like “waiting for the other shoe to drop,” won…
Talk about death in plain, simple, easy-to-understand terms
“You’re dying.” I can often visualize the impact of my words as soon as they leave my mouth, the heavy weight sinking into the mind and body of my patient as they sit in the stark white hospital bed. It usually isn’t the first t…
Withdrawing life-sustaining treatment over family objections
“We can keep your loved one alive. but we won’t. Even though you think their life is worth living, we do not.” The first time I helped a hospital convey this type of offensive message to a patient’s family, it deeply humbled me….
What a good death looked like [PODCAST]
Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. “He needed to be taken to the hospital to be pronounced, and he was put on a gurney. One frequently mouthed wish was to be taken from his home feet first. I stood beside him as he was placed in the ambulance. …
What a good death looked like
The first occurred when the ethics committee gathered to discuss one of the residents on the nursing wing. She was in the late stages of dementia and unable to speak. She had developed an ulcer on her foot, and the doctor recommended antibiotics and wh…
A hospice doctor’s advice on financial independence and living a regret-free life [PODCAST]
Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. “Unlike my dad, I grew up with very different feelings about my own longevity. I have always believed that I would live to a ripe old age. This belief has colored my approach to career and finances. In many wa…
A hospice doctor’s advice on getting your finances in order
An excerpt from Taking Stock: A Hospice Doctor’s Advice on Financial Independence, Building Wealth, and Living a Regret-Free Life. Copyright © 2022 Ulysses Press. Reprinted with permission from Ulysses Press. New York, NY. All rights reserved. Yo…
Death is inevitable. Talk about it.
I had a patient in the ED who reminded me a lot of my grandfather, my Dada. I grew up with my Dada, listening to his stories and learning from his knowledge of the intricate workings of the world. He was a first-generation college student, science love…
