Grave Concerns

Nationally known palliative care doctor, Jessica Zitter, says medical school students are taught how to keep patients alive, but no one teaches them how to let a patient die. 

Dr. Zitter's best selling book "Extreme Measures", was part biography and part expose into how our culture deals with death and dying. She argues that our current medical culture puts patients on what she calls the "End of Life Conveyor Bel...

Life is so busy, who has time to think about stuff like wills, financial trusts, power of attorney or advance care directives? All important legal documents, but getting them done falls pretty far down our "to-do" list and there can be some pretty big consequences because of that. 

In this episode of "Grave Concerns" we have a check-list of items to ponder and why they are important, plus we touch on the topic of...

It's difficult to think of our own death, much less the passing of a loved one. According to the Conversation Project, more than 90% of us think it's important to discuss end-of-life wishes, yet only a fraction of us do it. 

Those conversations happen even less frequently and it's often a taboo topic, especially among medical professionals and care providers for people with an intellectual and/or developmental disabil...

This is a follow up conversation from episode two, but this one is all about the difficult and sometimes confusing decisions patients are asked to make when filling out an advance care directive. 

Join guests Susie Putzke and Jill Massman, who have walked people through the thicket of medical options, in their respective roles as a former hospital chaplain (Rev. Putzke) and director of clinical services at Quiet Oaks Hospice in St. ...

If you have a bad accident and are in a coma, or maybe you're coming close to the end of your life, do you think your medical team would know what kind of care you'd like if you couldn't speak for yourself? 

There's a written form called a health care directive that outlines the kind of care you want and don't want if you're not able to make your own medical decisions. 

What's the philosophy behind ...