NATIONAL
May 16, 2012 | By Matt Pearce
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.
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
February 19, 2012 | By Elaine Woo, Los Angeles Times
"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.
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
January 22, 2012 | Steve Lopez
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.
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
December 21, 2011 | By Catherine Saillant, Los Angeles Times
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
December 16, 2011 | By Jeannine Stein, Los Angeles Times / For the Booster Shots blog
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.
HEALTH
November 30, 2011 | Melissa Healy
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.