Death And Dying Case Study

The parents came out of Grandma’s room by one by one, bags under their eyes, makeup running down their face, and bright red noses. By that time, I could almost predict what happened. As my mom and dad approached us with their heads down, I prepared myself to hear exactly what I never wanted to hear. “The doctors are turning off the life support machine. She isn’t suffering anymore, and she will be looking over every one of you guys. She said she loves you all so much,” Mom told us while my dad didn’t hide his tears back.

Facing Death is a compelling documentary on, oftentimes, the final journey patients and their families will venture through together in life. The documentary seeks to capture how the patients and their families respond to the inevitability of death. The film includes families who respond to the issue by allowing their family member, the patient, to pass through the door of death without aggressive care, while there are yet other families who insist on everything being done to delay the moment of death. This topic of fighting death is attributed with producing much debate. On one hand are those who do not see the point of fighting death, however, on the other hand, there are those who believe that delaying death and staying alive is what ought to be done. Personally, from what I understand of either party, I think that I am a part of the later party. In addition, this issue naturally delves into what one believes occurs after death, as it is an issue dealing directly with death. This also compels me to view this topic from the viewpoint of the later party.

Corr, C. A., Corr, D. M., & Bordere, T. C. (2013). Death & dying, life & living. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.

I vividly remember that chilly night in March as I walked out of Fifer, the building my father now calls home, for the first time. I had goosebumps, but they were not from the cold I felt hit my skin. Instead, they were from the sickness in my stomach. As I got in the car, I began to cry and had to stop myself from running back inside. My entire world had turned upside-down. How could I go home without my father? How could I leave him in a nursing home, a place where he was too young and mentally fit to be confined? I had to fight the feeling that he didn’t belong. I had to remind myself of why he chose to be there, and I hated it.

Death at any stage in life is personal and holds different meanings to different people. Society places a great deal of meaning on death based upon age, situation, and their personal experiences and beliefs. The viewpoints of death and dying in early childhood are limited; however, children have a basic understanding of death by the age of two through their own observations of family members (Berger, 2008). Children who are dying often fear death as they do not have a fully developed concept of dying and associate death with abandonment (Berger, 2008). At this life stage, it is important to have guidance from his or her parents to gain a better understanding of death and dying.

Furthermore, these presumptions were not entirely correct. Although, my patients were in their late 70s, with limited mobility, reduced cognizance, and from lower socioeconomical class backgrounds, I did not contemplate the actual humanistic qualities of my patients. I completely neglected to acknowledge the unique lives I was about to enter. Alternatively, looking back with some disappointment, I was not able to conduct a deep, meaningful conversation about the implications of death. I predicted I would discuss different views of death and dying, but this subject is much more personal than I imagined. In conjunction, I did not encounter a bitter attitude from my patients, as I predicted. However, both my patients’ conditions determined their willingness to engage upon each visit. Sometimes patients were too tired to hold a conversation, often overwhelmed by questions about their lives. During one visit I asked my patient about his hobbies when he was younger. He proceeded to discuss the wonderful recreational vehicle cross-country trips he and his wife would take. This led to sorrow about the loss of his wife, dog, and inability to conduct the trips in the future. Aside from the unpredictable interactions themselves, I did not forecast how my patient’s conditions would dictate our visits together.

Death is inescapable and shows no partiality or distinction. The author had his first encounter with death when he was four years old. About ten years later he would lose his mother to diabetes. Eighteen years later death struck again. He lost his dad to a battle with cancer over the course of four months. This happened two weeks prior to his wedding. Ten months later the author would deal with the deal of his mother-in-law.

Misunderstanding in the dying child. Dying children often blame themselves for what is happening to them and for the sorrow and anxiety they see in their parents. It is important that family and loved ones of dying children give them a clear explanation of what is happening to them and that they are not being punished by death.

George Patton Jr once said that, “It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived.” Mr.Patton realized that death is natural and inevitable, so he gives thanks to God for the life that he, his friends and family have been dealt. At funerals, usually several individuals are pain stricken and severely upset. These individuals have been conditioned to fear death and to believe that death is something to run away from. Elizabeth Kubler-Ross speaks about actually tuning into the patients in order to figure out what their needs are. Mrs. Kubler-Ross, in her novel, On Death & Dying uses a five step blueprint in order to describe the dying process effectively.

In his book, Dying Well (1998), Dr. Ira Byock artistically brings a sense of humanity and compassion to a topic so often dismissed and silenced: death. Dr. Byock’s personal experience with his dying father shaped his views on caring for terminally ill patients. Through his father’s death, Dr. Byock recognized the importance of familial support, how to communicate openly, and to make the last moments of one’s life meaningful. These lessons are evident in his telling of Anne-Marie’s, Douglas’s, and Janelle’s prospective end of life stories.

When you die you lose memories surrounding the event that led to your death - that means running back to your body or the area after dying is forbidden. However, you keep the knowledge about your group, friends, enemies and other people that you've met before that event.

The article, “Death and Dying in the Curriculum of Public School: Is there a place?”, written by Ethel L. King-McKenzie is contained within the book “Death Dying and Bereavement” composed of by its two main authors Dickinson’s, and Leming. Addresses the fear of death individuals have and how that fear is promoted in our youth by sheltering children from death. By implanting a curriculum surrounding death and dying, students can grow up to surpass disregarding older generations and overcome stigmas involving death. Not discussing death and allowing the dying process to be a part of our live negatively impacts our coping skills. Tools of which, are a salient aspect in life as every human will encounter death in their lives. In addition, the

On Death and Dying By Elisabeth Kubler-Ross For my book review, I read On Death and Dying, by Elisabeth Kubler-Ross. Dr. Kubler-Ross was the first person in her field to discuss the topic of death. Before 1969, death was considered a taboo. On Death and Dying is one of the most important psychological studies of the late twentieth century. The work grew out of her famous interdisciplinary seminar on death, life, and transition. In this paper, I give a comprehensive book review as well as integrate topics learned in class with Dr. Kubler-Ross' work. Like Piaget's look at developmental stages in children, there are also stages a person experiences on the journey toward death. These five stages are denial/isolation, anger, bargaining,

1.)     Explain how the answers to the self-inventories in the text concerning facts, attitudes, beliefs and feelings about death reflect our societal understanding or lack of understanding of death. I think that the self- inventory question reflected on both our understanding and lack of understanding about death related topics. Some of the answers to the questions on the inventory I knew without look at the answers, but some of the answers actually surprised me. The question about the death certificate was one of the questions that actually surprised me. I assumed before I did the inventory that every death certificate had a specific cause of death that was given on the certificate. Another answer that

After reading this scenario about this patient, there are a few things that I wonder about and things that could have potentially contributed to this patient’s death. First, I do not understand why they did not place an Ewald tube down this patient and perform some sort of gastric lavage with activated charcoal (Gastric, 2017). They did all the work to stabilize the patient, but did not remove the remainder of the product, causing the acidosis. Basically, I feel that the patient came in with metabolic acidosis because of the aspirin, was stabilized, but then developed metabolic acidosis again. Which could have lead to a whole new list of complications to develop.