The End Well Project: Reimaginging Dying, with Dr. Shoshana Ungerleider ...

We will all face death. Few are prepared to think about how or where they will die.. One should not be passive in preparing for death. I am not referring to financial or legal preparation such as wills, estates, burial plots or other things.

Watch this video, and contemplate the inevitable.  Some of us will go out kicking and screaming. You will often hear family and friends tellling us what a 'fighter'  he/she was, how she never gave up. Others will say he accepted his end, having accomplished many of his own important goals.

The talk was given at Exponential University 2017, by Shoshana Ungerleider, MD



Do you want to die in your own bed, in a nursing home, in a hospital ? There are many ways to approach this challenge.  None of us can predict how, where or how quickly we die. We have a large amount of emotional baggage, our family also carries emotional baggage of which we may not even be aware.

How often I have heard about the son or relative that lives at a distance who will take time to arrive to see their loved one before they pass on.  Each case has it's own set of circumstances which determine how and when you may die.

Much of this sounds pretty morbid to write or speak about, yet it happens thousands of time each day, as often as other events, birthdays, bar mitzvahs, weddings, and births.  It is a passage and a rite of life.  Dying is a part of what we call life.  For certain no one knows what happens after we 'die'. In fact there are different definitions of death. At one time we thought it was when our heart stopped beating. Today it can be defined as brain death (when the brain ceases it's electrical/chemical activity. Yet the body goes on living, in some cases breathing on it's own or with ventilatory assistance.

80% of patients wish to die at home while only 20% actually do die at home.
Doctors do not know how to share this information, They lack the training.
30% of patients die in the ICU
Some doctors perceive death as a failure.

Palliative care is meant to extend quality of life, decrease suffering and match patient wishes for dying.     

There are many participants family, friends, nurses, doctors, and volunteers. Dying is not an easy experience.  We need major changes.

The baby boomer generation is now upon us, 10,000 boomers will turn 65 each day. The major cause of death in this group is due to chronic disease. 

Fill out your advanced directives today, specifying how you want to be treated and specify what measures you do not want to take place on your road to dying.

Join us for a fast-paced day of learning and connection as we engage with one another, across disciplines, to transform the end of life into a human-centered experience.