The value of this health care center is hence exactly in taking care of its patients until their last breath. Its mission is to go beyond, past their physical healing by showing a beautiful and unique attention to their humanity, their souls. This goal, since the very beginning, is a special attention for the disenfranchised, […]
life is no less precious when accompanied by sickness … Read More »
… “Serving is different from helping. Helping is based on inequality; it is not a relationship between equals. When you help you use your own strength to help those of lesser strength. If I’m attentive to what’s going on inside of me when I’m helping, I find that I’m always helping someone who’s not as
in the service of life … Read More »
“Not every patient can be saved, but his illness may be eased by the way the doctor responds to him – and in responding to him, the doctor may save himself. But first he must become a student again; he has to dissect the cadaver of his professional persona; he must see that his silence
how ‘the doctor may save himself’ … Read More »
… Akira Kurosawa’s ‘Red Beard’ is the story of a recent medical graduate assigned to a rural clinic for his post-graduate training. In his arrogance, he is livid that he should have to train in a poor clinic – aspiring instead to ascend the ranks of caring for the rich and powerful Shoguns. Through a
… The stories of our patients frequently do not end well, no matter what our patients do, and no matter what we do. In the end, if not now, then later, all pass from this world. All too often the service we provide, this most personal service, will fall short as we come up against the
the act of service redeems the experience of suffering … Read More »
“In law school he had committed acts which had formerly seemed to him of great vileness and had inspired a feeling of self-loathing in him at the time he committed them; but subsequently, seeing that such acts were also committed by highly placed people and were not considered bad, he, without really thinking them good,
medicine … covenant or contract? Read More »
“Health is not a commodity. Risk factors are not disease. Aging is not an illness. To fix a problem is easy, to sit with another suffering is hard. Doing all we can is not the same as doing what we should. Quality is more than metrics. Patients cannot see outside their pain, we cannot see
a measure of my days … Read More »
“There is an infinitely better way to address the needs of people with serious illnesses [than physician-assisted suicide]. Our society should embrace what Pope John Paul II called “the way of love and true mercy”—a readiness to surround patients with love, support, and companionship, providing the assistance needed to ease their physical, emotional, and spiritual
… at “Ask Medicare” … for those who care for the elderly with serious illness.
medicare caregiver information … Read More »
… Gawande writes about ‘hot spotters’ … “An important idea is getting its test run in America: the creation of intensive outpatient care to target hot spots, and thereby reduce over-all health-care costs.” A common factor these programs share is intense one-on-one care and accompaniment by an interdisciplinary team … “My philosophy about primary care
patients only a mother could love … Read More »
