END OF LIFE CARE AND SPIRITUALITY
In the last century the average life span in the United States has increased by more then 30 years. One hundred years ago the average American died at the age of forty-six, at home surrounded by family and friends1. Death was seen as an inevitable part of the journey through life. People used spirituality to come to grips with their suffering. (Spirituality is that which gives meaning to one's life, it can be religious in nature, but it can also be found in art, family or friendship. Dying provides an opportunity to find this meaning to life, because it gives an individual the occasion to deal with the deeper questions of existence. This is how people approached death through most of human history.2) In the twentieth century the advances in medical technology have dramatically improved quality and length of life. This progress has also dramatically changed the way people die. Death has become institutionalized; today 90% of Americans die in a hospital, a sharp contrast to one hundred years ago, when 95% of Americans died at home1. Removal of death from the home has turned it into a foreign and frightening process, which is difficult to deal with and understand. It is much easier to isolate the dying to a hospital's int
As a result, Mickey says, his father suffered a lot of pain to prolong his life for a relatively short period. He said, 'You are my wife and if anything happened, you'd have to make sure I didn't have to continue living this way. " A Great Gift One of Mickey's happiest memories from right before Richard's death is having the opportunity to feed him ice cream, a pleasure Richard had denied himself for years. Her husband had no idea what was going on around him; sometimes she would find him lying in his own excrement. Within one year Mickey saw his father and two close friends fall victim to terminal illness. " "We've got to incorporate the notion of failure into the conversation," Mickey says. Claire's experience underscores the need for more openness and communication within families about death and dying. She talked to a priest at Boston College about stopping tube feeding. When Hope Fades After 10 months, a neurosurgeon put a shunt in Don's head to drain the fluid from his brain. As Don's wife and best friend, she felt she had to help him: "I never for a second believed my in-laws would think about what he wanted. She never imagined she'd spend the next 15 years of her life struggling with charting the course of her husband's treatment. Don was in a coma for another five years. One time, Don's lung collapsed; a resident called Claire late at night and asked her what she wanted them to do.
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