Love this piece. Great images: medical checkmate, medical house of cards, suffering is like fire, and "We sure put Dad thru the wringer!"
Nancy
by Craig Bowron. Published in The Washington Post Opinions on February 17, 2012. Link to full article.
Dr. Bowron is a hospital-based internist in Minneapolis.
I know where this phone call is going. I’m on the hospital wards, and a physician in the emergency room downstairs is talking to me about an elderly patient who needs to be admitted to the hospital. The patient is new to me, but the story is familiar: He has several chronic conditions — heart failure, weak kidneys, anemia, Parkinson’s and mild dementia — all tentatively held in check by a fistful of medications. He has been falling more frequently, and his appetite has fallen off, too. Now a stroke threatens to topple this house of cards. Read more ...
