Why Hospitals Are the Worst Place to Be When You Are Sick (Part 2)

I am deeply grateful for the outpouring of compassion as well as the wealth of information I received from readers in response to my recent post, “Why Hospitals Are the Worst Place to Be When You Are Sick.” The spread of infections in hospitals has reached epidemic proportions. In this followup, I want to share some of the resources that were shared with me in emails from readers.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have identified hospital-acquired infections as the fourth leading cause of death in the United States. The CDC reported that in 2002, nearly 100,000 people died with a hospital-acquired infection (HAI), while an estimated 1.7 million people became infected. All in all, more people die per year in the U.S. with an HAI than from AIDS, breast cancer and car accidents combined.

A report published by the CDC in 2009 estimates that HAIs cost the U.S. healthcare system between $28 and $33 billion per year. Costs are such that Business Week recently identified “stopping infections in hospitals” as one of the top five methods for controlling healthcare costs.

Despite attempts to control the spread of infection, HAIs continue to wreak havoc in U.S. hospitals. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) is the lead Federal agency charged with improving the quality, safety, efficiency and effectiveness of our healthcare. The 2009 AHRQ National Healthcare Quality Report established that hospital-acquired infections are “the most common complication of hospital care.”

In describing the scope of this problem, one reader wrote:

These infections are what’s known as antibiotic resistant pathogens or superbugs. They include Staph, MRSA, C. Diff, HIV, herpes, VRE, e. Coli, Salmonella, Norovirus, Avian Influenza A, Listeria, Acinetobacter, Rhinovirus and others. These pathogens are becoming more prevalent throughout the entire world than one could imagine. We are on the doorstep of growing a worldwide epidemic with Hospital acquired infections (HAI’s) rising at an alarming rate. A new one called NDM-1 that is believed to have originated in New Delhi was discovered mid-2010 and has now spread into many countries, killing hundreds of people. But the scary thing is that there may not be an antibiotic to kill it. So what do you do, then, when there are no successful antibiotic treatments?

New Technologies

Thankfully, the answer may be found in some of the new technologies that are being developed to combat hospital acquired infections. As one reader explained:

The World Health Organization (WHO) and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) insist on hand sanitation at bedside in acute care facilities, each and every time healthcare workers are about to be touch the patient or his surroundings, because the hands carry infection-causing pathogens which must be inactivated to assure patient safety. The current approaches — hand washing with soap and use of alcohol rubs — have limited germicidal effectiveness, take too long (minutes for hand washing, 30 seconds for rubs) and irritate the hands due to persistent contact dermatitis, so they cannot be practically used in the WHO defined mode. Moreover, no supplier to date has come up with a means to re-sterilize gloved hands, after donning and during use, which are also vectors for transmission of dangerous germs in both the OR and the ICU. This remains an unbroken infection-causing pathway.

Here are three organizations bringing forward new technologies:

Germgard Lighting, LLC . Germgard’s technology pipeline enables a multi-tiered approach to infection prevention. Included are a UV-C technology; cost-effective bare and gloved hand sanitation process; a gas-based, room temperature medical instrument sterilization process; as well as new surface cleaning and air sterilization technologies.

IV-7 Ultimate Germ Defense. This hard surface disinfectant is currently being tested at John Hopkins Hospital. The technology is based on development of a new molecule claimed to be an effective, safe and non-toxic method of eradicating surface contaminants. The company claims that it:

  • Provides 24-hour residual killing ability
  • Will be awarded a Level 4 Toxicity Rating from the US EPA (no other product has received this rating in over 30 years)
  • Will be validated that all the bacteria, viruses and fungi cannot become resistant to it.

Bio-Intervention Specialists . This company is dedicated to saving lives and reducing the costs associated with hospital infections. They have just received EPA registration for a new disinfecting technology that they claim is less toxic than toothpaste, environmentally friendly, yet powerful enough to kill even the toughest microbes (such as MRSA and C. diff spores) found in hospital environments. Third party efficacy and toxicity testing over the past two years has demonstrated that Electro-BioCide is entirely different from commonly used disinfectants because its kill mechanism is electrical, not chemical. As such, third party testing has demonstrated a complete kill of microbes such as MRSA and Pseudomonas in less than 30 seconds. This greatly reduces the chance for the mutation of organisms.

Patient Advocacy Resources

The Informed Patient Institute . This is an independent nonprofit organization that provides credible online information about healthcare quality and patient safety for consumers. They rate the usefulness of online health care report cards, starting with nursing homes and physicians, and provide tip sheets about what to do if you have a concern about quality in a hospital, nursing home or physician’s office.

Consumer’s Union’s Safe Patient Project. This group seeks to eliminate medical harm in our health care system through public disclosure of health care outcomes (such as hospital-acquired infection rates and incidents of medical errors) and information about health care providers (such as complaints against and license violations of physicians and hospitals). The campaign also works to improve drug safety by ensuring that consumers have full information about prescription drugs (such as in direct-to-consumer ads and access to clinical trial results), by strengthening oversight of the FDA and by ending practices that create conflicts of interest (such as drug company gifts to doctors).

The Empowered Patient Coalition. This nonprofit organization was created by patient advocates devoted to helping the public improve the quality and the safety of their healthcare, with an emphasis on high quality information and education. For example, the coalition has developed a detailed and comprehensive patient guide to hospital care which will give consumers a blue print for interacting with the health care system in ways that are safe, successful and empowering. The consumer and the patient advocate will learn how to reduce the odds of experiencing medical error and hospital-acquired infection and understand the tremendous impact they can have on patient safety and health care quality.

Books

Elizabeth L. Bewley‘s new book, “Killer Cure: Why Health Care is the Second Leading Cause of Death in America and How to Ensure That It’s Not Yours,” is focused on driving change so that health care’s purpose stops being “to deliver tests and treatments” and starts being “to enable people to lead the lives they want.” According to Publishers Weekly, this book includes useful statistics, references, a guide for further reading and excellent suggestions for patients.

Bart Windrum‘s “Notes from the Waiting Room: Managing a Loved One’s (End-of-Life) Hospitalization” offers an intelligent and heartfelt examination of what interferes with having the kind of peaceful life’s ending that most of us say we want. This is a constructive, engaging and challenging critique of the institutionalized confusion around end-of-life goals, deeply held values and biotechnology.

If you have additional resources you would like to share, please do so in the comment section of this article, so others may learn about them as well.

If you would like to know more about me and my work, please explore my website here.

Also, if you know anyone who might get value from this article please email or retweet it or share it on Facebook.

/by

Why Hospitals Are The Worst Place To Be When You Are Sick (Part 1)

Serving as primary caregiver to my mother during the last six months of her life was my first prolonged and intimate encounter with the healthcare system. I was shocked and deeply disturbed to discover the many ways that our healthcare system dishonors, alienates and harms our loved ones entrusted to it. I can only hope that healthcare reform will eliminate the reasons why nurses and other healthcare workers repeatedly giggle dismissively as they say that hospitals are the worst place to be if you are sick, that they are hotbeds for infection.

The truth of this comment rendered me helpless to rescue my mother from an insidious downward spiral as she fell victim to the infections that ran rampant in a local hospital. I do not believe that our hospital was unique in this regard, but rather representative of a growing and deadly problem. Completely unrelated to the diagnosis for which my mother was admitted, she was exposed to one infection after another. Each one was treated with an antibiotic that, in turn, lowered her immune defenses. This rendered her vulnerable to other infections, treated by other antibiotics, and so on, and so on, until she finally died as a result.

Within my mother’s first week in the hospital, she had succumbed to her first two infections: a urinary tract Infection (thanks to the admitting nurse, who did not wear gloves while catheterizing her) and thrush — an infection of the mouth caused by the Candida fungus. The inconsistent adherence to procedures known to minimize the spread of infections appeared to be the combined result of a lack of enforcement and understaffing. It was incomprehensible to me how such a state of affairs could become so commonplace as to be laughed at and dismissed. To me, it was outrageous and completely unacceptable.

I began to wonder how much of the money changing hands in the healthcare and pharmaceutical industries is traceable to the institutional breeding of infections that prolong hospitalizations, debilitate patients and require extensive testing and drug therapies. Looking over the bills for my mother’s last six months of hospitalization and home care, over 90 percent of her medical expenses were attributable to infections that she shouldn’t have gotten in the first place. What is wrong with a healthcare system that makes patients sicker, due to inadequate enforcement of sanitary control measures, while drug companies thrive on the revenues generated by new drugs that are designed to treat these infections?

The only preventive measures I saw were the inconsistent use of the hand washing liquid at the entrance of every patient room and the gowns, gloves and masks used when entering the room of patients known to be contagious. These supplies often ran out without timely replenishment, causing people to enter patient rooms without these precautions.

With overworked nurses and aides, infected patients simply got less care. Rather than running in and out of the rooms of infected patients as needed, nurses and aides would group their patient care tasks into fewer visits. The use of the gowns and gloves were often casual at best. Nurses and aides would hang a gown on the patient’s door and reuse the same gown to save time in serving these patients. It was not uncommon to see medical personnel without gloves leaving an infected patient’s room and going directly into another patient’s room.

Visitors were neither monitored effectively nor properly informed of the importance of infection control precautions. However, it was the doctors who most frequently violated the required protocols; I couldn’t help but wonder if they thought these procedures were beneath them. So, the infections go round and round, compromising the health and recovery of patients, while the pharmaceutical and healthcare companies thrive at their expense.

Infection Specialists were brought in on my mother’s case. She was treated with massive doses of a variety of antibiotics and steroids for her recurring urinary tract infection, frequent bouts with Thrush, three major episodes of parotid gland infections and ongoing battles with a staph infection called MRSA (Methicilllin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus). In older adults and people who are ill, MRSA can weaken the immune system, causing serious skin and soft tissue infections, a serious form of pneumonia and, if not treated properly, can be fatal. She also contracted C. diff (Clostridium difficile), which is spread by the over-growth of C. diff spores — usually due to antibiotic therapy. The antibiotics one might be taking for another kind of infection kill all bacteria in the intestines, allowing this one to over-grow. It can also be spread by hands through direct or indirect contact with contaminated surfaces. Like MRSA, C. diff is a bacterial infection that has become resistant to many antibiotics and is prone to frequent relapses when antibiotics are withdrawn. Infectious disease doctors tend to play hit or miss with their mini-arsenal of antibiotics and steroids in an attempt to keep infections under control. In my mother’s case, these infections never really went away.

My mother had entered the hospital with a head injury from a fall that healed beautifully. She remained in the hospital due to the barrage of infections that bombarded, ravaged and debilitated her. The complacency about hospitals being breeding grounds for infection was painfully evident in the written remarks of my mother’s primary care physician in her discharge papers. He wrote such statements as, “Patient had an uneventful hospital course,” and, “Patient’s stay at the hospital was unremarkable.” What does it take to be eventful and remarkable?

I share my story for two primary reasons. The first is my hope that it will add fuel to the fire of those seeking corrective action. It is simply not OK that hospitals are the worst place to be when you are sick! My second reason is to keep a promise I made to my mother as we walked through the valley of the shadow of death together. When we felt helpless and hopeless, my mother would reach out and grab my arm, look deep into my eyes and, as only a mother can do, elicited a promise from me that I would write articles about what we experienced as “healthcare” in America.

Please join me in being outraged by and intolerant of this situation in our hospitals and other “healthcare” facilities. Let your voice be heard on this one. Complain when you observe unsanitary conditions in healthcare facilities, follow the protocols for infection control and report any breaches of protocol you observe. We deserve and are capable of better than this.

***
If you would like to know more about me and my work, please explore my website here.

Also, if you know anyone who might get value from this article please email or retweet it or share it on Facebook.

/by

The Top 5 Things to Do When a Loved One Is Dying

I have far more I’d like to say on this topic than can be contained in a single post. So I will summarize my top five here and do follow-up articles on each of the five in the future series, What To Do When A Loved One Is Dying: Parts 1-5.

1. Don’t assume you are supposed to know what to do.
We live in a death-denying culture that has a hard time even saying the word “death.” Needless to say, we are not taught how to face our own death or that of a loved one, and are likely to panic in death’s presence. Or at the very least, we’re likely to be ill at ease because we don’t know what to do or not do. So start by recognizing this state of affairs, and don’t pressure yourself to “do it right.” When someone you love is dying, it’s okay to be a mess — just try not to dump your mess on others — especially the one who is dying.

This goes for others as well. No two people are going to respond the same way and most will be woefully unprepared and unskilled at dealing with the situation. This will not, however, stop some from shirking their responsibility or being self-appointed bullies demanding that others follow their lead.

Lead with your heart — keep your love flowing with the dying person and others as well — if possible. Nothing is more important than loving each other. Do your best and then some.

2. Make it a priority to demonstrate your love for the person who is dying.
The fact that your loved one is dying can be overwhelming and scary. Do your best not to let that get in the way of keeping your love alive as you see them off on their journey into the unknown territory of death. Love them up, down and sideways, but don’t make a big deal about it — just let your love flow and watch for little things that you can do to be of service to them. If you enter your loved one’s room and say something like, “Your color looks good today,” when you both know he or she is dying, your real communication says, “I can’t handle this and need to pretend it isn’t happening.” Be honest. Be authentic. Be you. It’s okay to let them see your fear and distress, but don’t let that overshadow your love. Express your gratitude to them for the ways they enriched your life, share happy memories and yes, do say goodbye — but do it tenderly. Don’t be afraid to touch the dying. Nothing communicates our love more than holding hands and stroking our loved one’s hair.

Tailor your efforts according to the time available. Respect the fact that time can be very short from hearing the prognosis to the actual time of death. One of my personal pet peeves is when people are inconvenienced by the news, as though their loved one should have checked on their availability rather than having the audacity to sound the red alert at an inopportune moment. When your mother has a 50/50 chance of making it through the night, you don’t show up four days later!

3. Respect the authority of the dying to make his or her own decisions.
The person who is dying is the boss. If they are conscious enough to be making their own decisions — don’t bully them into doing things your way. Just as sure as you are that your way is right for you, know that their way is right for them no matter how different it is from your own. If someone holding a healthcare proxy is in charge, his or her authority is to be equally respected. Ideally, each of us gets our ducks in a row before our dying time. In reality, most do not. As a result, a lot of financial, legal, physical, mental, emotional and spiritual life-or-death decisions get made in a hurry, at the last minute. This can cause a lot of chaos, confusion, conflict and mixed up emotions among family and loved ones. Do your best to quickly align yourself with the wishes of the dying. It is their death, not yours.

4. Accept that he or she is dying. Don’t fight against it.
It’s fine to hope that things will turn around and death will be postponed. However, if death is what is happening, it helps enormously to accept that fact. We are taught to fight against death like it is an evil monster. In fact, death is as normal as birth — we just haven’t been trained to see it that way. I find it sad when doctors and loved ones subject the dying to endless invasive drugs, tests and procedures when it is obvious that it is time to die. I am an enthusiastic supporter of hospice care for the dying.

Each of us is born one moment of one day, we die one moment of another day and have an unknown number of days to live in between. Make the most of the time you and your loved one have left together. Fill it with tenderness and be of loving service to their wishes and needs. Give them a good send off.

5. Contribute to maintaining a peaceful environment.
When someone is dying, they have enough to do handling their own process, which might include physical pain, fear, emotional turmoil, confusion, regrets, etc. Assume that any discord in their environment will add to their load and be unkind on the part of those causing it. Even if the dying person is seemingly unconscious, assume he or she can hear and be affected by everything that happens around them. If family members are squabbling, take it outside of the room. Consider the dying room a sacred space where only love and comforting activities are allowed unless the dying person requests otherwise.

Just give your loved one the best send off possible leaving no regrets.

If you would like to know more about me and my work, please explore my website here.

Also, if you know anyone who might get value from this article please email or retweet it or share it on Facebook.

/by

Do You Have ‘The Little Blue Book’ in Your House?

If you are wondering what I’m talking about, it is for you that I am writing this blog! Here’s the bottom line: We were all born one moment of one day, and each of us is going to die one moment of another day — we just don’t get to know when that will be. For some of us, that is a major source of anxiety. Furthermore, we live in a society that has kept us in the dark about what to expect when we, or someone we love, dies. This absence of knowledge not only makes us ill-prepared to face death, but it feeds our fear of death, which in turn diminishes our enjoyment of life.

It is perfectly normal to have some anxiety or fear about death, and in fact, most death-related anxiety is actually about the process of dying rather than about being dead. That’s where the little blue book comes in — this little 14-page blue booklet gently, kindly, and in a matter-of-fact manner explains the dying experience in such a way that it brings its readers great comfort. So why not reach for that comfort sooner rather than later? Why live with death anxiety on autopilot in the background of your mind? Why wait and find yourself called to the bedside of a dying loved one unprepared for what you will encounter and not knowing what to do?

Most people working in the field of dying, death, and grieving know about “the little blue book,” as it has come to be known. Many hospice and palliative care organizations around the country give this book to their dying patients and their loved ones to ease them through the dying experience. It is entitled Gone From My Sight: The Dying Experience and is written by Barbara Karnes, RN, who was one of the pioneers of the hospice movement in this country in the early 1970s. To learn more about Barbara and her work, visit her website at https://www.bkbooks.com. Barbara’s other three titles are: The Eleventh Hour: A Caring Guideline For The Hours To Minutes Before Death (my personal favorite), My Friend, I Care: The Grief Experience, and A Time to Live: Living with a Life-Threatening Illness. All are available on her website.

This blog is not meant to be an advertisement for Barbara and her work, but rather I am shouting from the rooftops to spread the word that each and every one of us has the opportunity to prevent the needless suffering that our fundamental ignorance about the dying process brings. Not knowing what is normal and what the signs of the end of life are, we often cling desperately to life, relying on physicians to come up with a pill or procedure that will prolong our lives. Sometimes this is reasonable, but often the dying and their loved ones simply lack the understanding of the dying process that would enable them to consider the relative wisdom of further medical interventions or the timing of opening the door to palliative care.

Those of us who work in the field of dying, death, and grieving have satchels of stories about the ways people suffer unnecessarily through their own death or at the bedside of a loved one. Not knowing what to expect, what is normal, and how to support and comfort a loved one who is dying makes us ill at ease which detracts from a tranquil environment for the dying.

As someone who writes often about dying, death, and grieving, I am quite passionate about the need for a basic education of the general public about this topic. That’s why I would go so far as to say that if I were queen of the world, I would make Barbara’s books required reading for everyone and as important as a fire extinguisher to have in your home!

The vast majority of us will die of old age and/or prolonged illness. Having Barbara’s books on hand when you or a loved one begins the end of life’s journey empowers you all to do your very best to provide a loving, comforting, and supportive sendoff. Rather than worrying about what you should or shouldn’t do, what’s normal and what isn’t, and how to be the greatest comfort to your loved one, empower yourself with some basic education and serve as an example to others. Sitting at your dying mother’s bedside, when you know that what you are observing is normal, you can encourage her and let her know she is doing a great job of dying. In this case, a little knowledge is a very powerful, wise, and comforting thing.

If you would like to know more about me and my work, please explore my website here.

Also, if you know anyone who might get value from this article please email or retweet it or share it on Facebook.

/by

Advance Healthcare Planning Part One: Not Just for Old People

There’s been a big push in recent years to educate the public about Advance Healthcare Planning (AHP). The focus has been primarily on the forms you need to fill out and why they are so important. But, there is so much more to it than filling out forms that is far more important and will be discussed in Part 2 of this article. For now, let’s focus on what Advance Healthcare Planning is and who needs it.

Advance Healthcare Planning is about providing clear and convincing evidence of your wishes in the event of a life or death health crisis when you are unable to speak on your own behalf. Here’s how AHP works. The legal requirements, forms, and recommendations for expressing your wishes are regulated by each state and vary from state to state. There are lots of great websites that will let you know what is required in your state. One of my favorites is http://www.caringinfo.org. It provides extremely clear information about AHP, what you need to know, and provides downloadable forms for each state. If you are someone who spends a significant amount of time in a second or third state, such as many “snowbirds” do,” be sure to fill out forms for both states and carry them with you when you travel. This is important because not all states have reciprocity with one another.

Generally speaking, there are two documents involved. The first is a Healthcare Proxy, which is a legal document in which you empower someone else to speak on your behalf regarding end-of-life health care. The second is a Living Will, which is not a legal instrument, but is intended for the purpose of giving specific information about what kinds of life sustaining treatments you do and do not want. Unfortunately, most of us have been presented with these documents as part of a package of forms that we are filling out with our attorney as part of our estate planning or we are asked to fill them out when being admitted to the hospital. As a result, we rarely understand their full implications and intricacies and fill them out in a rush.

Now, let’s look at who needs a health care proxy and a living will. The answer is simple — every adult who is mentally competent. I know, most people think you don’t need to worry about this stuff until you are old, but the reality is you don’t have to be old to die. Death and health tragedies happen every single day to healthy young people texting in cars, drinking and driving, on the football field, in domestic disputes, and innumerable other ways. For example, we have a new baby in our family who was just named after his mother’s brother who died at the age of 17 in a bizarre car accident.

Dealing with these realities is hard in a society that perpetuates a death taboo that makes us not want to think about, talk about, or deal with the realities of aging, dying, and death. However, educating ourselves about these normal parts of life and taking responsibility for ourselves by living with our affairs in order is a matter of personal responsibility. Plain and simple, there are two great reasons for tending to your advance health care planning. First, it is the only way to make sure that your voice is heard if and when a health crisis arises and you are unable to speak for yourself. Second, it avoids family trauma and squabbling over what should or shouldn’t be done for you in time of crisis. So, if you don’t yet have your advance health care plans in order, what possible good reason do you have? Please, please, please make this an urgent priority. And, please read Part 2 of this article, which will provide lots of the ins and outs and intricacies of how to really make sure your advance health care plans work for you.

If you would like to know more about me and my work, please explore my website here.

Also, if you know anyone who might get value from this article please email or retweet it or share it on Facebook.

/by

Is Death the End Or Is There Something More?

Grave with a cross with beautiful greenery

No doubt, most of us, if given the choice, would prefer to die peacefully in our sleep with no unfinished business with ourselves or others. This we call “a good death.” But it is important to look below the surface of this idea to understand its misconceptions.

The culture of death in the United States is beginning to get a much needed renovation. We have all been brainwashed for far too long by a death taboo that immigrated to our shores from Europe and has dominated our conception of death ever since. In my upcoming book, Shining Light on Dying and Death, I explain the causes, dynamics, and consequences of this death taboo and how it has handicapped us from having a healthy relationship with death. Readers are then engaged in a process that gets them out from under its influence.

Consider the following images representative of an Internet image search of the word, “Death.”

2016-02-07-1454862127-3024958-blackdeath_main.jpg.png

2016-02-07-1454862169-7634098-GrimReaper.jpg

2016-02-07-1454862213-4170494-skullandcrossbones.png

Notice that they are black and white images of skulls, skeletons, crossbones, and the Grim Reaper. These images originated in the 1300s in Europe when the Black Plague wiped out 50 percent of the population. They were sketched by people then who pinned them to their clothing in an effort to fool Death into passing over them, thinking they were already dead. What kind of feelings do these images evoke in you? For most, it is the kind of fear that makes us avoid death “like the plague.” Yet, no one gets out of here alive. When we run away from those things we find uncomfortable or are downright terrified of, we never learn how to face our fears and strengthen our capacity to move through the trials and tribulations that simply come with the territory of being alive.

This avoidance of death has evolved into a resistance to all forms of pain and suffering and the illusion that a “good” life or a “good” death is devoid of suffering. Yet, if we stop to think about it, some of the greatest treasures of our lives have come through some form of suffering. Our pain and suffering often draw us closer to one another giving us the opportunity to demonstrate and deepen our love through acts of compassion, kindness, and caring. In order to meet our life’s challenges, we enter into them rather than running away from them and find that we are strengthened and learn to build our character and fortitude.

There are other ways of seeing death that reflect a different kind of relationship to dying and death and thus an alternative response to fear. Consider this set of images from an Internet search of the phrase “Near Death Experience.”

2016-02-07-1454862480-2439824-article25456681AEF672100000578627_306x423.jpg

2016-02-07-1454862517-2328894-tunnel_Blight.jpg

What do these images suggest? What kind of feelings do they evoke in you? Notice the hint of pastel colors, the beckoning light, and the sense of some part of us rising up from our dead body. These images also suggest the unknown or unknowable quality of death, but not in a fearful way. It is more of a sense of transition into something or somewhere else. If you live in fear of death, consider the possibility of what it would feel like had you been “brainwashed” with images like these.

Another consideration contrasting these two sets of images is that the “Death” images imply that death is the opposite of life – ie you are either alive or dead. The “Near Death Experience” images suggest a cycle of transformation where death is the opposite of birth, set apart by life. In other words, “we” are born, we live, we die, we are reborn, we live, we die, etc. It is interesting to note that when I first did this image comparison about six years ago, there was no overlap of these images. Yet, today, I found images of moving into a tunnel of light among the “Death” images. This is new and encouraging news about our renovation of the culture of death in America.

If we are more open-minded and have a healthier concept of death, then we are likely to also have a far different way of responding to suffering. Some believe that suffering can be better understood within the context of karmic accretions (both positive and negative) from the past (both within this life and previous incarnations) that are being balanced as we experience the fullness of life. In this understanding, we are not so concerned with what looks and feels good as with what is beneficial and productive to our journey through life. There is an implication that we are doing some kind of important inner work that belies the understanding of our small, personality selves.

Looking at the pain and suffering of living and dying within this context suggests that a “good death” for example might not be the one that looks peaceful and isn’t messy, but rather the one that accomplishes what that soul needed to have happen to complete its work in this lifetime. For some, this might be attractive, while for others it might be extremely difficult to endure or bear witness to. Who are we to judge? Being open to the fullness of living and dying allows us to take advantage what life has to offer and as Mavis Leyrer advises, “Life’s journey is not to arrive at the grave safely, in a well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, totally worn out, shouting ‘Holy shit, what a ride!'”

If you would like to know more about me and my work, please explore my website here.

Also, if you know anyone who might get value from this article please email or retweet it or share it on Facebook.

/by