Pick a day, maybe today, to talk with loved ones about end-of-life care
To ensure that your wishes for end-of-life care are honored, talk with loved ones now, while you are able, rather than when a health crisis is looming.
I usually don’t give a second thought to the white coat I wear each day in my work as a hospitalist. Today, though, the beginning of Yom Kippur, it takes on a special meaning. Jews the world over wear white clothing on this day to symbolize atonement and remind us that someday we’ll be buried in white, too.
My white coat and I have seen many patients die. Sometimes we even play a role in their deaths. I think of the time I snapped an elderly man’s ribs in a futile attempt to keep him alive.
At age 88, Mr. K was suffering from end-stage kidney failure. I, fresh out of
