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Access to Blood Transfusions Could Increase Hospice Usage
Blood cancer patients often forgo hospice care due to inability to access transfusionsMore patients would likely choose hospice if they had guaranteed access to blood transfusions, recent research has found. Those approaching the end of life who rely on transfusions, particularly patients with blood cancers, often decline hospice for fear of losing access.
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A Tragedy in Two Parts: Grief and Its Grim Aftermath
The loss of a spouse and the breakdown afterwardThis is Bill’s story as told to Melissa Gouty. Our “Opening Our Hearts” stories are based on people’s real-life experiences. By sharing these experiences publicly, we hope to help our readers feel less alone in their grief and, ultimately, to aid them in their healing process. In this story, Bill describes the total despair he…
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A Traditional Funeral Food as Old as Its History
Ancient cheeses aim to please more than a palateIt is commonplace to share a meal after the burial of a loved one. Traditional funeral foods span the globe from Irish wake cakes and Mormon potato casserroles to the comforts of southern fried chicken. For generations, the Swiss village of Grimentz served cheese as its main post-burial meal. The aged delicacy may have even…
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“Six Feet Under”
Alan Ball’s iconic drama was the first American TV show to examine death through the lens of a family funeral homeAlan Ball’s “Six Feet Under” is the quintessential prestige drama about death and life as it focuses on a family of funeral directors in Los Angeles. Debuting on American TV on June 3, 2001, it gave stories to characters who were previously unseen in the TV canon and re-examined death at a critical moment in…
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Massage Therapy Eases Cancer Patients’ Suffering (Interview)
An Interview with Gayle MacDonald, MS, LMT on massage for cancer patients and the dyingGayle MacDonald is a pioneer in oncology massage and its education. When she first began in 1993, massage therapists in training were instructed to avoid working with cancer patients altogether, because of the myth that massage would help “spread” cancer. Since then, Gayle has been at the forefront of developing standards of practice for hospitalized…
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End-of-Life Medical Training Program Launches
Students learn skills to discuss death and dying with patientsMedical programs and institutions teach physicians, nurses and allied health practitioners how to save lives. But they often fail to prepare medical students to address death and dying. Medicare reimburses physicians for time spent discussing end-of-life topics with patients since 2016. But a national poll conducted by John A. Hartford Foundation shows that many doctors…
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“Long Live the Queen”
British punk singer celebrates his friend who died of breast cancerWhen British singer-songwriter Frank Turner‘s friend Lex succumbed to breast cancer, he penned a beautiful tribute, “Long Live the Queen,” a punk celebration of a woman’s full of life. Turner shares what Lex told him when he last visited her in the hospital. Lex’s words help Turner face the future without her. I was sipping on…
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A Black-Owned Hospice Serves the Underserved
Heart and Soul Hospice brings end-of-life care to NashvilleCasting light in a dark place is Heart and Soul Hospice, a small organization in Nashville, Tennessee. This Black-owned hospice’s mission is to “to insure that appropriate end of life health care is available to ALL members of the metro-Nashville area, particularly those traditionally underserved in our city.” That underserved population is the Black community.
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Death Goes Modern
Is Its Rise to Cultural Stardom Bringing Death Out of the Shadows?Humans and death have a complicated relationship. With the widespread death and uncertainty the world has been forced to face over the last two pandemic-heavy years, it might seem only natural that death would rise as a cultural star. And it would only be natural that our dynamic with it would be awkward. As a…
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