JUST COKE, DOC

Gentry was a homeless man, who had moved to Tucson four weeks before coming to hospice.  He was born and grew up in Mississippi on a sharecropper farm with his parents and eight siblings. He…

The Best Medicine

In retrospect, I realize that when I entered Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, the practice of medicine sat at the cusp of the ancient traditions and explosive technological changes.  Our traditional curriculum began…

Isn't There Something Else You Can Do?

Isn’t There Something Else You Can Do?   I met Miriam and her husband over thirty years ago, when they came to me for primary medical care.  They were devoted to each other, always in…

AM I KILLING MY MOTHER?

Tammy accompanied Carmen, her aged mother, in the transport vehicle from the hospital to our hospice unit. Carmen is suffering from gradually progressive heart failure, along with dementia.  About seven years earlier, Tammy and her husband…