Alexandra is a woman in her forties who has been described as developmentally disabled and has sometimes had problems managing her budget. She cares about having a conventional appearance and her preference is for V-neck blouses. She unfortunately has early-stage breast cancer, but it could be treated in various ways. She could benefit from having […]
With the looming and imminent threat of insufficient hospital and ICU beds, medical equipment and healthcare staff, I found myself recalling an old favorite TV show from my college years. MASH (mobile army surgical hospital) created both comedy and drama around the reality of having three operating room beds in an army tent on the […]
The Administration for Community Living (part of the Administration on Aging within the U.S. Dept. of Health & Human Services) is seeking comments on draft voluntary consensus guidelines for Adult Protective Services. The original deadline for comments was October 30, but it’s been extended to November 13. More information and a portal for submitting online comments […]
NDY’s comment letter can be summarized as follows: We do not oppose payment to physicians for advance care planning discussions with their patients, but we want the payment regulation delayed until the disability community and others can, with CMS support, develop new advance care planning informational materials that do not rely on “better dead than […]
This is kind of old news by now, but it should be of interest to anyone who read previous posts on this topic. I’d also urge anyone who hasn’t read Bill Peace’s essay to do so, along with the commentary posted on the Bioethics Forum at the Hastings Center Site. Just to refresh people’s memories […]
There’s an interesting new response to Bill Peace’s essay in the Hastings Center Report in which Bill described a very disturbing late-night visit by a physician while Bill was hospitalized for care and complications relating to a stage IV skin breakdown. An excerpt has been posted as a comment on Bill’s response to invited reactions […]
Recently, Diane Coleman wrote about new proposals to increase the pool of donor organs, and that have particularly disturbing ramifications in terms of the care and treatment of newly disabled individuals. We already know that organ transplant teams are more than willing to obtain organs from individuals with long-term disabilities, as highlighted by the case […]
Once again, an item featured on Thaddeus Pope‘s Medical Futility Blog turned out to be something that I wanted to explore in greater detail than the brief blurb given on his blog, in his September 10th post, Hospitals Vary in How Quickly LST Is Stopped: In “Mortality associated with withdrawal of life-sustaining therapy for patients […]
Last weekend, Thaddeus Pope posted a followup to an earlier item shared and discussed on his Medical Futility Blog. Let’s take it in order. Back in March of this year, Pope originally shared the news about the unexpected recovery of Kimberly McNeill of New Zealand, an 18-year-old who suffered severe injuries in a car crash […]
It’s hard to believe it’s been about a month since I’ve written here. Various health issues have kept me away from the keyboard, although I’ve been monitoring news and other information sources. I just haven’t had the energy to write. I’ll be doing my best to catch up over the next few weeks – there […]
