Lessons from the end of a life

doi:10.1136/bmj.329.7476.1244

BMJ 2004;329:1244 (20 November), doi:10.1136/bmj.329.7476.1244

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Lessons from the end of a life

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

This is the story of the final chapter of my mother's journeythrough dementia up to her death just after her 83rd birthday.The story includes extreme kindness and sensitivity from somedoctors, nurses, and other health professionals, alongside crass,ill judged defensiveness from others.

After almost two years in a care home, which followed severalyears of gradually worsening dementia, my mother became unwelland much less responsive than usual. She was admitted to a hospitalmedical assessment ward for investigations. No specific ailmentwas diagnosed, though she was having trouble swallowing.

The speech and language therapists declared her "nil by mouth"—unsurprisingly,as she was asleep most of the time. A few days later a nursetold me they had been unsuccessful in putting in a nasogastrictube and intended to try again later; after that my mother wouldneed a "PEG." I don't recall any explanations of . . . [Full text of this article]

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Ros Levenson, independent researcher and policy consultant and visiting fellow

King's Fund ros@roslevenson.demon.co.uk

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