End of Life in the News: Where are all the Palliative Care Teams?

by Suzana Makowski By now, many of you may have heard or read Charles Ornstein,(@charlesornstein) a Pulitzer Prize-winning senior reporter, on NPR or in ProPublica on "How Mom’s Death Changed My Thinking About End-of-Life Care."  He tells of his mother's final days in the hospital, after having aspirated during the placement of a naso-gastric tube that resulted in cardio-pulmonary arrest and subsequent days in the ICU.  He speaks to the sense of being alone and the lack of guidance in the process of end-of-life decision-making.  My heart dropped when hearing this story - for his (and his family's) loss, the difficulty of the process so clearly expressed, and for the haunting silence and void of palliative care throughout the care and in his stories. During the interview with Jorge Valencia from The Story, Mr. Ornstein outlined his wish to have had "someone that was not involved in this case at all to come in and offer a perspective."  He did not want his decision to be rushed.  He expresses how his experience changed his view of end-of-life care - heightening his awareness of how the media and politicians have "allowed societal slogans to prevent us from having sophisticated conversations about end-of-life care" and as a result have left families without any sense of support. Mr. Ornstein reached out to an author of the Dartmouth Atlas (a family physician and researcher), to other experts in neurology, and to literature on the web for guidan...
Source: Pallimed: A Hospice and Palliative Medicine Blog - Category: Palliative Carer Workers Authors: Source Type: blogs