Barbara Coombs Lee
Blog Post List
January 4, 2012
Our family will always remember this holiday season as the time Sugar died. Sugar was a mixed breed, mostly lab/border-collie type. She exhibited the best character traits of every gene she carried and seemed to bear none of any breed’s drawbacks. She was a real credit to her species. A member of my daughter’s household, Sugar was one of my “grand dogs,” for whom it was my privilege to dog-sit if her parents went somewhere she was not welcome. Those unwelcome places were few and far between because Sugar met love and enthusiasm everywhere she went. Friends would vie for the chance to keep her...
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November 30, 2011
November is National Hospice and Palliative Care Month, and the theme of this year’s observance is “We Listen. We Care.” As I wrote in my last post, Compassion & Choices listens to those facing life’s end, and our response is guided by our principles for patient-centered care . The third key component of our mission is action . We work to make people’s aspirations for the care they receive in their final days a reality. Physicians cannot listen to the needs and desires of their terminally ill patients without time. Writing in The New Yorker , Atul Gawande quoted palliative care specialist...
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November 14, 2011
Leaders in the care of patients who face serious and life-limiting illness have designated November as National Hospice and Palliative Care Month, prompting more stories about both options. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel gives a very good overview of palliative care and hospice in this Q&A with Dr. Diane Meier . The theme of this year’s observance is “We Listen. We Care.” Listening is the number-one objective of our End-of-Life Consultation team (EOLC). Do you or someone you know face a serious illness? Do you have questions about palliative care or hospice? A Compassion & Choices...
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October 10, 2011
I have never recommended a film on the end of life before. But people deserve to see “Consider the Conversation” because it deepens our passion for life and enriches our lives. Michael Bernhagen and Terry Kaldhusdal put their hearts into this film, and it shows. Michael came to the hospice movement after his mother’s decline and death showed him how far from a healthy, authentic relationship with mortality the medical profession, and the nation, are. Terry’s fifth documentary, this film includes interviews with his brother, Peter, who died of pancreatic cancer at age 53. Michael and Terry...
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October 5, 2011
A mile high and ten miles northeast of Lincoln, Montana, melting snow and mountain springs form the headwaters of the Blackfoot, made famous in the novella and film A River Runs Through It. Stand at the source, running icy and fast, and try to picture Hawaii . This water flows to the Pacific and could ultimately wash onto the red sand beach at Hana Bay. Today, in Hawaii, a panel of experts convened at the state capitol. Legal, medical, elder care, legislative and end-of-life authorities concluded Hawaii law permits physicians to provide aid in dying subject to professional best-practice...
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August 25, 2011
Last week Compassion & Choices and our friend, Neil Rudolph, held a press conference in Denver to launch a national public education campaign, “ Peace at Life’s End — Anywhere. ” We hope to inform people in every state of safe, legal and peaceful means to end life when physical decline and suffering become pointless and unbearable. Neil’s parents, Dorothy and Armond Rudolph, were in their 90s when they tallied their escalating discomforts, infirmities and limitations, thought through their options, and decided to pursue a chosen death. Media outlets throughout the nation picked up the...
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July 21, 2011
New York has a new law, called the Palliative Care information Act (PCIA) . It’s simple, and short, and outlines a specific standard for doctors who care for patients at the end of life. The PCIA says when a disease has advanced to the terminal phase and a patient is unlikely to survive 6 months, doctors must offer to inform them of this, and advise them of available treatments aiming to bring comfort, not vanquish disease. At this point the disease is beyond reasonable hope of vanquish, and the symptoms may escalate to the point of intolerance. Patients have a right to know when disease-...
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June 7, 2011
In 2002, an elderly client of Compassion & Choices , Margaret Furlong, went to the hospital armed with her advance directive, clearly stating she did not want elaborate, life-extending treatment. The hospital delivered those treatments anyway. She spent ten miserable days in the ICU, tethered to machines and tubes and pleading for it all to stop. Finally it did, and Margaret died. Then the hospital billed Medicare for all her unwanted treatment and Medicare paid – without objection, with our taxpayer dollars. Margaret’s story is far too common. At Compassion & Choices we intend to put...
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May 5, 2011
On Sunday we acknowledge the noble role of motherhood, which is easy. Mothers are the givers and guardians of life. They not only risk their own lives to create new ones, but nurture and care for their families – for generations – and selflessly address their own needs last. As a mother, I’ve realized so much of what we do isn’t because we’re the only ones able, nor because we actually want to. Rather we are often the only ones who anticipate problems and actually see what needs to be done.
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