I recently lost my father to a fight with multiple medical problems. While he would be considered young at 80, there comes a point when the human body must surrender. That was the case with my dad. In his honor his children could not have had a more loving and instructive set of parents. Mom died at 57 after a long battle with multiple-myeloma. In both cases I and my youngest sister were blessed that our sister lived in the community and felt a strong passion for caring for both of them until they departed. It was trying on her and we can never repay her for what she did for our parents in our absence. Thanks sis, we love you very much.

Now why is this in my blog? Interesting story in the USA paper. I encourage you to read it. This article points out something that I witnessed first hand. Unfortunately the article does not explain how this really works. The article also doesn't properly defend the hospice organizations that get it right and don't defraud the system. The article implies that hospice should be slowed down when in fact, it will, by current demographics, get bigger. We are an aging society and we need to have a frank discussion about allowing people to die with dignity, and without pain.

Within the space of 24 hours our father went from unbearable pain to serenity. He began his hospice in a nursing home and the next day was admitted to a true hospice facility. While in the nursing home he continued to receive a drug costing thousands of dollars to treat MRSA. When asked the doctor admitted that the drug was maintaining the MRSA but would never cure it and our father would continue to be in extreme pain. We had to ask them to stop the treatment. While at the nursing home the staff was unresponsive, rude, and disengaged. We had to pry information out of the staff. Within 24 hours he was resting comfortably in a hospice facility in a private room. The surroundings were very quiet, open, clean, and refreshing. The staff went out of their way to keep us informed about every aspect of the ordeal our fathers body was going through. He was never in pain after reaching this facility. Early the next morning dad went to be with mom.

I mentioned to my sister that if we could ever figure out why these two facilities were so different we could likely fix healthcare, not just the hospice situation. Let's begin by having a national dialog about the fact there comes a time when people need to stop being selfish, both the family and the medical community. Providers are selfish because end of life can be a profitable revenue stream. Families can be selfish because they allow the provider community to exploit their situations because they cannot let the loved one go.

Statistics  (CLICK HERE FOR MUST READ ARTICLE) say that the average person will spend more on healthcare in the last 6 months of life than their entire past medical needs. It would seem that this is a great place to begin the repair. It will have to be done however with open hearts and minds; not pocketbooks. It will have to be done by accepting a few basic principles. First, we have invented more cures than we can afford without someone else paying for it. Second, the human body wears out and dies. Everyone dies.