Conscious Departures

Leave No Room for Doubt October 6, 2012

From the The New York Times, Oct. 6, 2012: “An appeals court panel on Friday ruled that a hospital could remove life support from a terminally ill Queens woman, but now there appears to be some doubt about what the patient, a 28-year-old bank manager with brain cancer, really wants.”

I created the section “Some things you need to be considering” to help non-paid caregivers, entering a caregiving situation, be aware of several key issues they may face caring for someone with a terminal (or potentially terminal) illness.

Taking care of someone in their final days is a great responsibility and an amazing gift as well if you can approach it right. Taking time to consider the various aspects of such caregiving is critical for both the person being cared for and the caregiver. The list of considerations I created comes strictly from what I experienced and so may not be complete for your situation, but there’s enough there to give you a heads up and a good, if not nearly complete overview of what to prepare for. Because of the list’s importance I decided to give each item a separate post to elaborate on the issue and also provide some resources as a springboard for further research.

The first item seems like a simple one: where do you want the caregiving to take place and where would the person like to die? It sounds simple, but it’s not always an easy decision and one that can be influenced by many variables. Not only that, it becomes part of a bigger discussion; one about the law. Before your eyes glaze over and the temptation to click away overtakes you, bear with me because although you may luck out and find you can go through an end of life caregiving situation without hassle, don’t count on it unless you prepare ahead of time. Oh, and that “time” can be any time. It’s not exactly something we control. (more…)