San Diego Hospice

Re: ["Life on Her Terms," Feb. 5]: What a wonderful article. My mother is an 88-year-old with congestive heart failure and is a client with San Diego Hospice. We had learned of their services after my 64-year-old sister developed pancreatic cancer in 2005. My sister passed within four months. But congestive heart failure is so different. We are aware that my mother can have a final attack at any moment, but in the interim she has moved to an independent living facility close by. With their help and the invaluable help of hospice, she has had an unbelievable good turn in the quality of her life.

Dr. Paul I. Jagger, 72, a founding member of the UC San Diego School of Medicine's faculty and first medical director of the university's hospital, died Feb. 4 at San Diego Hospice of cancer. He lived in La Jolla. A native of Chula Vista, Jagger earned degrees from the University of Redlands and the UCLA School of Medicine. He completed his studies at Boston University Medical Center and what is now Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, and taught briefly at Harvard.

I recently attended a San Diego Hospice conference for health care professionals called "Special Care for Special People." To my distress and others present, the keynote speaker encouraged us to at least consider removing food and water from patients who are "terminal" and "let them die." We were asked to consider assisted suicide and injecting lethal substances into patients, which the speaker said is "good." She encouraged us to join the Hemlock Society, which writes such books such as "Final Exit," which teaches the "practicalities of assisted suicide."

The La Jolla branch of the San Diego Public Library is hosting a photography exhibit portraying the terminally ill, their families and volunteer and professional care givers from San Diego Hospice. The 17 black and white prints are the works of local photographers Sandy Small and Norman Forsythe. Handwritten comments by the subjects in the pictures accompany the prints and speak of their moods and hopes. The exhibit, which continues through Nov.

The federal government, extending its financial investigation of hospice programs to California, wants San Diego Hospice to refund $2.1 million to Medicare for 37 patients who outlived the normal six-month prognosis for dying people in terminal care. Government auditors looking for fraud in the Medicare program are seeking more than $80 million in repayments from a dozen hospice programs across the country for patients who lived more than six months, the standard length of the hospice benefit.

A Los Angeles Times commentary ("Vauclain Point a Tarnished Victory," Jan. 26) asked the people of San Diego to judge Bill Cleator (a mayoral candidate) based on his efforts to help the San Diego Hospice acquire Vauclain Point. I think that is an excellent idea, but I think Mr. Cleator should be judged on the facts surrounding his involvement in this project. Bill Cleator did the following: 1. When the hospice's efforts to acquire the property were defeated in October and it looked like Vauclain Point would be sold for private development, Mr. Cleator was contacted by Mercy Hospital and agreed to try to get additional time so that Mercy could make a proposal.

Four San Diego-area women and a clinic will be honored by the League of Women Voters of San Diego today for their contributions to health care. The awards are being presented at a luncheon at the Marriott Hotel-Marina beginning at 11:30 a.m. The recipients of the "Women of Vision" awards are: * Silvia Benito of La Jolla for her work as volunteer advocate for Latino cancer patients at Scripps Memorial Hospital-La Jolla.

Dr. Paul I. Jagger, 72, a founding member of the UC San Diego School of Medicine's faculty and first medical director of the university's hospital, died Feb. 4 at San Diego Hospice of cancer. He lived in La Jolla. A native of Chula Vista, Jagger earned degrees from the University of Redlands and the UCLA School of Medicine. He completed his studies at Boston University Medical Center and what is now Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, and taught briefly at Harvard.

So here we are reading the newspaper to educate ourselves, to cheer our favorite politician, boo the other guys and postpone desk duty with holiday bills and income tax directions resembling English. You know the monthly routine, divvy the pay among the obligations -- the mortgage, electricity, exterminator, priceless Visa card, the math tutor, auto and house insurance, plus repairs on the car, the roof, your teeth, and maybe, if there's money left, some food.

Hunter Stuart died at 11 a.m. on Dec. 5, 1999, in a room at San Diego Hospice, a care facility for the dying. His mother, Melissa, 24, sobbed, as she knew she would. His father, Sean, 30, held himself steady, as he had for most of his son's troubled, 5-month life. Both had prepared with the aid of hospice counselors who know what dying looks like and what it requires of the living.

The federal government, extending its financial investigation of hospice programs to California, wants San Diego Hospice to refund $2.1 million to Medicare for 37 patients who outlived the normal six-month prognosis for dying people in terminal care. Government auditors looking for fraud in the Medicare program are seeking more than $80 million in repayments from a dozen hospice programs across the country for patients who lived more than six months, the standard length of the hospice benefit.

Following is a list of some of the charitable organizations in San Diego County that will be accepting donations of various types through the holiday season: The AIDS Foundation has released a wish list for the holidays that includes both food items and personal hygiene items. Suggested food donations include: Canned tuna, fruits, vegetables, soups, chili, pastas, jams and jellies.

Forty years ago, Dean Ing came to San Diego to have his broken ankle fixed. He was an Air Force crew chief at a base in Yuma, Ariz. He was sent to the Balboa Naval Hospital for a patch-up. He still remembers the nurses. He's been back this way several times since: Usually to visit the San Diego Zoo. He's interested in "inter-species communications."

Hunter Stuart died at 11 a.m. on Dec. 5, 1999, in a room at San Diego Hospice, a care facility for the dying. His mother, Melissa, 24, sobbed, as she knew she would. His father, Sean, 30, held himself steady, as he had for most of his son's troubled, 5-month life. Both had prepared with the aid of hospice counselors who know what dying looks like and what it requires of the living.

Bernard David Zetler, an expert on seismically caused sea waves known as tsunamis and a longtime faculty member at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, died of cancer Wednesday at his home in La Jolla. He was 76. Most recently, Zetler's work centered on scientific predictions of high tides in California until the year 2000.

Like the majority of workers in this county, the many who toil in the vineyards of fund-raising took Labor Day at face value by taking the weekend off. Most presumably were resting up for the unusually heavy onslaught of benefits stacked high on the September calendar, a sort of smorgasbord of events so replete with choices that anyone who feels the need to go out and party for charity this month should have no trouble finding an affair tailored precisely to taste.