Antonio Espinoza, a hospice nurse in Southern California, ministered to terminally ill patients, including those with covid. He tested positive for covid five days after getting his first dose of vaccine and died a few weeks later.
One family took up the challenge of taking their mother, who had serious medical problems and the coronavirus, from the hospital to die at home. But because of the risk of infection, home hospice can be a daunting experience.
Fewer Americans are dying in a hospital, under the close supervision of doctors and nurses. That trend has been boosted by an expanded Medicare benefit that helps people live out their final days at home in hospice care. But as home hospice grows, so has the burden on families left to provide much of the care.
Kathy Brandt and her wife, Kim Acquaviva, national experts in hospice and palliative care, shared intimate details of Brandt’s experience with terminal cancer before her death Sunday.
For a generation of LGBTQ people who lived through unprecedented social change, getting older poses new challenges — lack of services, discrimination, neglect and even abuse.
Kathy Brandt and Kim Acquaviva are both leaders in the world of hospice and palliative care. When Brandt learned she was dying of ovarian cancer, the couple decided it could be a teachable moment.