Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: terminal illness

  • Tracing wisps of hair

    Miriam RosenPittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States My mother was diagnosed with cancer when I was fourteen. For the next nine years, she lived her life with elegance and seemed to do it with ease. She continued her psychiatry practice, only gradually reducing the number of patients she saw. She read the New York Times cover to…

  • The book that galvanized a health care transformation

    Sherrie DulworthNew York, United States One of the major health care sea changes of the past half-century did not originate from the usual sources of scientific research, technological development, or even clinical trial-and-error. Instead, a book written for a general audience galvanized a health care transformation. While the cultural revolution of the 1960’s had ushered…

  • A dying patient’s perspective on truth-telling

    Shimon M. GlickBeer Sheva, Israel Mr. H, a 60-year-old farmer with liver metastases from a gastric carcinoma, had been in the hospital for quite some time. Jaundiced from his condition, he turned to one of the residents on rounds and said, “Several days ago, I asked you how much time I have to live, and…

  • And a time to die

    Katherine ArnupOttawa, Canada “You’re going to be an expert at this by the time you’re done with me,” my sister joked, shortly before her death from cancer at 51. “Maybe,” I protested, “but I don’t want to learn it from you.” Four years later, I began volunteering at a hospice near my home. By the…

  • Rethinking the knowledge of terminal illness: Is it a quality of life issue?

    James B. RickertBloomington, Indiana, United States I found myself sitting again with an oncologist waiting to hear the results of treatment. I felt calmer this time because my friend, who was being evaluated for recurrent ovarian cancer, had requested that I come, but I still had a pit in my stomach. We had driven down…