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Barbara Dreyfuss died March 1 after contracting COVID-19 at a Seattle-area nursing home. Her earlier decision to document her final wishes may offer an example for families as the deadly virus spurs interest in end-of-life care.
Families worry that overwhelmed hospitals won鈥檛 be able to provide palliative care for loved ones stricken with COVID-19.
As the novel coronavirus marches across the country, it is upending how families and funeral homes honor the dead 鈥 and, ultimately, put them to rest.
Neil Mahoney had terminal cancer. He also had a legal right to aid-in-dying. But his faith-based hospital called it 鈥渕orally unacceptable.鈥 So he turned to a network of Colorado doctors to fulfill his last wish.
Fewer Americans are dying in a hospital, under the close supervision of doctors and nurses. That trend has been boosted by an expanded Medicare benefit that helps people live out their final days at home in hospice care. But as home hospice grows, so has the burden on families left to provide much of the care.
Across the U.S., people with early dementia are signing new advance directives to confirm their end-of-life wishes while they still have the ability to do so. But doctors say the documents may offer a false sense of security.
In Colorado case, the right to aid a cancer patient鈥檚 death runs up against faith-based hospital policies. As more states have passed laws, about 1 in 6 acute care beds nationally is in a hospital that is Catholic-owned or -affiliated.
Kathy Brandt and her wife, Kim Acquaviva, national experts in hospice and palliative care, shared intimate details of Brandt鈥檚 experience with terminal cancer before her death Sunday.
Running counter to the efforts of suicide prevention experts and many religious and social norms, some seniors are quietly exploring the option of turning to suicide when they feel they've lived long enough.
It鈥檚 never easy to tell a patient about a terminal illness, but a longtime doctor whose own diagnosis was botched says physicians must do better.
In a rare but growing practice, some hospitals offer parents the choice to transport their dying children out of the intensive care unit, with life support in tow, so that they can die at home.
For a generation of LGBTQ people who lived through unprecedented social change, getting older poses new challenges 鈥 lack of services, discrimination, neglect and even abuse.
For a generation of LGBTQ+ people who lived through unprecedented social change, getting older poses new challenges. When it comes to seeking elder care, concerns about lack of services, discrimination, neglect and even abuse threaten to reverse recent progress.
Kathy Brandt and Kim Acquaviva are both leaders in the world of hospice and palliative care. When Brandt learned she was dying of ovarian cancer, the couple decided it could be a teachable moment.
In a nation where the suicide rate continues to climb, such deaths among older adults are often overlooked. A six-month investigation by KHN and PBS NewsHour finds that older Americans are quietly killing themselves in nursing homes, assisted living centers and adult care homes.
Confronting changing health care needs, fixed incomes and problems created by climate change can be overwhelming when trying to pinpoint that dream location, but taking time and doing research makes it a dream come true, say these seniors.
Older adults with advanced kidney disease sometimes want to stop dialysis but often meet resistance from doctors, new research shows. We explore options available to these patients, including conservative care.
An analysis of inspection records in California, Florida and Texas shows significant numbers of violations related to assisted living residents with dementia.
When you learn you have a terminal illness, how do you live with purpose and authenticity?
In the bipartisan opioid bill headed to the president鈥檚 desk, hospice workers would be allowed to destroy patients鈥 unneeded opioids, reducing the risk that families misuse them.
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