96 percent responding that they believe enhancing the quality of life for seriously ill patients is more important than extending life as long as possible.
Acute pain can be harrowing — and receiving prompt and helpful treatment can make all the difference in the world.
Programs aim to bring palliative care to emergency rooms where end-of-life wishes can be forgotten in the rush to provide treatment.
It’s about how we approach care.
Many Washingtonians say it’s more important to enhance the quality of life for seriously ill patients than to extend their lives through every possible medical intervention, Seattle Times health reporter Carol Ostrom writes.
Very ill patients, even when not facing death, can benefit from better pain and symptom management from specially trained palliative care teams.
The doctors, nurses, and social workers, trained in the relatively new specialty of pediatric palliative care, manage complex pain and symptoms while supporting families as they navigate bewildering medical terrain, set goals of care, and make tough decisions that match those goals.
Most people would agree that when the time comes, they want a “good death.”
But what that means is all too often left up in the air until a crisis strikes or the stricken person is no longer able to communicate his wishes or his advance planning documents are not clear.
The burden then often falls on surrogate decision-makers.
Patients will be able to receive hospice care while continuing to receive life-prolonging treatments. Currently, patients have to choose one or the other.
Service dogs for post-traumatic stress disorder. Voice of autism: six men and women talk about living with autism-spectrum disorder. And a palliative care doctor who chose to fight on.
“…giant step forward in helping patients at the end of their lives…”
By Carol Ann Campbell August 13, 2009 NEWARK, N.J. – Fourteen-year-old Prince Jackson made a fist and banged his hand on his head, again and again. “It was like this,” he said, trying to describe the blinding pain from the tumor growing inside his head. “It hurt so much. It wouldn’t stop.” Jackson could not [...]
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Seattle Times Health News
Experts divided over recommendation to screen children for cholesterol
Some clinicians say universal screening is an important tool to help identify children who are genetically predisposed to high cholesterol and to pinpoint others who could benefit from treatment. Others express concerns that screening may do more harm than good.
People in state high-risk insurance plans often feel left behind
The federal health law set up new plans that are cheaper and more comprehensive than the older ones run by states but consumers need to go without insurance for six months to qualify.
Peeking in on your doctor’s notes
Although federal law guarantees patients the right to examine and get copies of their medical records, providers haven’t always made it easy to do so. But the movement to give patients direct access to their health information has picked up steam, and policymakers have encouraged it as a way to empower patients to help manage their health and their medical care.
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