Terminally Ill

He had just made the final out in a city where his name is booed, his jersey is reviled, and his team had been swept. His power had disappeared, his swing was spotty, and his season was a wreck. Matt Kemp would have been excused for quickly disappearing through the dugout at San Francisco's AT&T Park on Sunday night and forgetting all about an earlier promise to third base coach Tim Wallach. “But that was the neat deal about it,” Wallach said. “He was standing there waiting for me.” PHOTOS: Greatest moments in Dodger Stadium history Kemp was waiting to cross the diamond to sign an autograph for a terminally ill Dodgers fan, waiting to summon the passion necessary to pass along the hope that he now found so precious.

The essence of much effective horror is an ability to tap into the churning fears of a moment in time. The low-budget, grimly realized "Would You Rather" is explicit about this approach, introducing us to a young woman (Brittany Snow) in dire financial straits with a terminally ill brother to care for. She agrees to attend a dinner hosted by an eccentric, wealthy philanthropist (Jeffrey Combs, enjoying himself) who promises a form of help. Instead, she and seven other guests find themselves coerced into playing a cruel version of the titular game, predicated on committing atrocious acts upon one another (or oneself)

Re "Death Emerges as a Civil Liberty," by Derek Humphry, Commentary, Dec. 1: Humphry's view that everyone has the right to suicide and the right to call in members of the medical profession as executioners is way off base. As nurses, we work hard every day to ensure physical and psychological comfort for our patients facing terminal illnesses. Adequate pain control, recognition and treatment of depression, family support services, hospice, etc. are but some of the tools we have to ensure a dignified and meaningful death for our patients.

On the evening of July 2, Bill Bentinck, 87, was led from his Palm Springs home in handcuffs, in mourning and in shock. The body of his wife of 25 years, Lynda, was still in the house, but there was no time to grieve. After telling police that his terminally ill wife had chosen to disconnect her oxygen supply and put an end to her suffering from emphysema, he was arrested on suspicion of murder. Bentinck, a straight-talking man in the Jimmy Stewart mold, felt that he had made a difficult but compassionate choice in honoring his wife's last wish and not reconnecting the oxygen.

California on Tuesday became the first state to require special licensing of insurance companies that allow the terminally ill to cash in their life insurance benefits so they can use the proceeds while they are alive. Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi said he is asking such companies to pay a $1,200 filing fee, designate an individual with a California address to transact the business and provide a plan of operation.

The Kaiser Permanente Hospice program in Orange County is recruiting volunteers to visit terminally ill patients in their homes. Volunteers must be 21 or older and able to work two to four hours per week. The program's purpose is to help "make each day as comfortable and meaningful as possible" for the patients, said Jan Bennett, who coordinates volunteer efforts in Orange County and south Los Angeles County. A 32-hour training program for new volunteers will begin in mid-October.

Representatives of Hospice of the Canyon will answer questions about outpatient and nursing-home care for the terminally ill during a Jan. 18 program at Valley Presbyterian Hospital in Van Nuys. The first in a series for families coping with terminally ill members, the 7 p.m. program is free and open to the public. "People have a lot of questions about putting someone in a nursing home," said Pat Nolan, executive director of Hospice of the Canyon.

With foreclosure proceedings against a Westlake Lake home for the terminally ill stalled by legal action, state health officials said the facility will be allowed to operate for now. Isobel Oxx, who distressed neighbors when she opened the home a year ago, faced foreclosure and possible eviction a week ago on her Leeward Circle property after failing to make mortgage payments to GE Capital Mortgage. But Oxx said and state officials now say the house was no longer in foreclosure.

A 40-year-old terminally ill cancer patient was raped, beaten and robbed by a masked assailant who entered and left her room at Prince of Peace Abbey here by traveling over the roof, police said Wednesday. The victim said the assailant, who had at least one accomplice, a woman, may have been inside the abbey last week, when a burglary occurred. The ill woman, who was staying in a guest room at the Benedictine monastery, was awakened about 1 a.m.

A shaggy black and white dog named Beethoven was reunited Wednesday with his "best friend"--a terminally ill 10-year-old boy--after the dog disappeared from the family car outside a Harbor City hospital where the boy was receiving treatment. "When he saw Beethoven, he started making sounds and touching him," Angela Ramos, 31, said of her son, Martin, who suffers from inoperable multiple brain tumors that have left him mentally and physically handicapped since birth.

It started about a month ago with a single post on Reddit.com: “ Hey Reddit -- my 47 year old uncle, Scott Widak, has down syndrome and is terminally ill with liver disease. He is currently bedridden and living out his last days at home with my 85 year old grandmother. One of his favorite things to do is open mail…anyone feel like sending him a letter or card?” It was a bit of a risk. Going personal on Reddit, a user-generated social news site that works like a message board, can occasionally be like exposing yourself to the juvenile id of the Internet.

"I'm not sick; I'm only dying," a friend told Dr. William Lamers Jr. The man had inoperable cancer and wanted to go home to die, but his doctor wouldn't let him out of the hospital. It was the early 1970s, when most people with incurable illnesses died in a hospital, in a lonely room, attended by doctors and nurses with no specialized knowledge of the dying patient's emotional and physical needs. There was no system for caring for the dying at home. The experience opened Lamers' eyes to a major failing of the healthcare system.

A series of heavy doors slid open, one by one, at the Pima County Jail. And finally I was sitting with 53-year-old Sanford "Sandy" Garfinkel, who had just been sentenced to 16 years in prison for killing his terminally ill wife by holding a pillow over her face. Was it a case of murder or an act of love? In the eyes of the law, such human complexities don't matter. There is no charge of mercy killing. Those who support physician assistance in dying - which exists in Oregon, Washington and Montana - argue that the absence of such an option often leads to desperate acts.

The longtime husband of terminally ill blues legend Etta James will remain as conservator of her $1-million estate, a Riverside County judge has ruled. In court documents, the singer's son Donto James had requested appointment as temporary conservator, expressing concerns about his mother's medical treatment and the costs of her in-home medical care. Donto James, of Moreno Valley, said he and his brother, Sametto James of Riverside, have reached an agreement with Artis Mills, who married the singer in 1969, that allows him to continue making financial and health decisions for his ailing, 73-year-old wife.

News came today that singer Etta James is terminally ill with chronic leukemia; the Riverside Press-Enterprise also reports that the 73-year-old is suffering from kidney failure and dementia. Leukemia is a cancer of the blood and bone marrow, where blood cells are produced. When abnormal cells are created they disrupt the function of healthy cells. The disease can be acute or chronic; in acute leukemia, common in children, immature or early blood cells multiply quickly, and immediate treatment is usually necessary.

Janeen Delany describes herself as an "old hippie" who's smoked plenty of marijuana. But she never really dabbled in hallucinogens -- until two years ago, at the age of 59. A diagnosis of incurable leukemia had knocked the optimism out of the retired plant nurserywoman living in Phoenix. So she signed up for a clinical trial to test whether psilocybin -- the active ingredient in "magic mushrooms" -- could help with depression or anxiety following a grim diagnosis. Delaney swallowed a blue capsule of psilocybin in a cozy office at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.

When four terminally ill children left their homes in Mexico on Monday, it was as if a magic carpet had carried them away. Away from the hospitals that could not cure and the poverty that would not end. Neither they nor their parents had ever flown in an airplane. Most had never seen the ocean. This week they did both in a single day. Faces pushing against airplane windows, they marvelled at how tall clouds were when you looked at them from the top.

What if a new medication for severely ill patients had no role in curing them but made them feel much better despite being sick? Let's say this elixir were found to decrease the pain and nausea of cancer patients, improve the sleep and energy of heart failure patients, prolong the lives of people with kidney failure, drive down healthcare expenditures and ease the burdens of caregivers? Those are the promises of a fledgling medical specialty called palliative care - not a new drug but a new way of treating patients who are living, often for years, with acute or chronic Illnesses that are life-threatening.

Bob Iritano died Thursday morning. He was 51. Iritano wasn't a celebrity. He wasn't a captain of industry or a mover and shaker. Iritano was just a guy who worked his job as an insurance broker every day. He was a husband. He was the father of four kids. Iritano also had terminal cancer. He knew he was going to die. The only question was when. His insurer, Health Net, decided last year not to cover a life-extending procedure that had worked just a few months earlier.