What to Expect When Your Parent Is Dying
A conversation with a hospice director
In the last days and hours of my mom’s life, a lot of stuff came up that I wasn’t prepared for: deciding between keeping her in the hospital versus taking her home for hospice care, or even knowing what hospice care involved. I also didn’t know what to expect about the actual dying process. That would have been really nice to know.
While many of us will lose our parents in a more sudden way, many will also end up using hospice. Either way, it’s good to have a handle on what the last days are like for a parent dying of an illness. To get this perspective, I spoke with Joe Feuerstein, MD, an associate professor of clinical medicine at Columbia University and medical director of two hospices, about, well, death stuff.
What is hospice, and how is it different from the hospital?
Joe Feuerstein, MD: Hospice is a service for people who are in a terminal state. In other words, their life expectancy is less than six months. It’s paid for by Medicare.
A physician will evaluate the person, and based on that evaluation, if the physician thinks this person will have a terminal event within the next six months, they will be eligible for hospice.
