Hospice care is available to patients and families dealing with terminal illness. People often do not avail themselves of hospice care because they don't understand what it entails. Many wait until their last few days to request this extraordinary comfort care instead of using the full six months available to them through Medicare and other insurance options. Demystifying Hospice describes through stories good news about end-of-life issues. Written...

"Ted McKay had a beautiful wife, two daughters, and a high-paying job. But after being diagnosed with a terminal brain tumor he finds himself holding a gun to his temple. Then the doorbell rings. A stranger makes him a proposition: why not kill two deserving men first, and then Ted will become someone else's target in a suicidal daisy chain"--From the publisher's web site.

Dr. Alan Gregory confronts the case of a man who, having survived a near-fatal accident, makes an agreement with a shadowy organization that ends the lives of clients who do not want to be a burden in the event of dire illnesses or injuries.

Easy-to-read text reveals that dying is hard work, for the old and especially the young, and how good it is that so many people help when a person dies, from medical staff to clergy and friends to family members.

Sixteen-year-old Hazel, a stage IV thyroid cancer patient, has accepted her terminal diagnosis until a chance meeting with a boy at cancer support group forces her to reexamine her perspective on love, loss, and life.

"Lynn Peirce is a fourth-year medical student at Mason-Dixon University. When her otherwise healthy boyfriend enters the hospital for routine surgery and fails to return to consciousness after the procedure, an MRI confirms brain death. Convinced there's more to the story than what the authorities are revealing, Lynn and her initially reluctant lab partner, Michael Pender, hunt down evidence of medical error or malpractice. They find that hospitals...

Offers advice on caring for a loved one who is terminal ill, including learning the complexities of the health system, handling financial issues, discussing the situation with children, making end-of-life decisions, and death.

Attending a high school for terminally ill kids, none of whom are expected to live to graduation, a group of teens search for purpose in their abbreviated lives, in a story told through flyers, postcards, and handwritten notes.

"Hospice nurse Stella prefers the night shift after Afghanistan left her veteran husband a changed man, haunted at night by memories he can't bring himself to share. Writing final letters for her hospice patients to their loved ones gives Stella the chance to help others communicate as she cannot. She only has one rule: she mails the letter only once her patient is no longer alive. When she meets a patient with a chance at redemption, she finds herself...