‘It can be really frightening’: knowing the common signs that a loved one is dying can help in their final days | Lydia Hales
My mum died on a summer’s morning.When I walked out of the hospital, where I had spent the last several days and nights curled on a small couch next to her bed, I felt like a stray root of some ancient tree that had accidentally broken out of the earth and into foreign air – wholly unprepared for the strange world I now found myself in.I thought that when she died, maybe the sun would have fallen out of the sky. But it was still bright, golden – as vibrant as my mum had been. On the drive home along the Tasmanian coastline Mum had loved so much, the sea spread out to the horizon in rolls of brilliant emerald
They say we don’t like sex, drugs, democracy or DIY. But here’s how we in gen Z really feel
Recent surveys claim to have discovered a lot of alarming things about my generation. But they’re not telling you the whole storyOne of the most ignominious accusations that has recently been levelled against gen Z – people born between 1997 and 2012 – is that we cannot do DIY.Nearly a quarter of us can’t change a lightbulb, a fair chunk can’t identify a flathead screwdriver, and a fifth don’t even know what a spanner is, according to research by DIY enthusiasts’ favourite Halfords, which surveyed 2,000 people, 323 of which were aged between 18 and 27. (I should get out of the way early that I was born in 1997 and no, I don’t know my flathead screwdrivers from whatever the other ones are called.)The commentators, as they are wont to do, had a field day
Wallowing in a soup of despair? Try ‘lemonading’ to buck the gloom
Linda Geddes spends a week with a clown, a comic and some toddlers to test the science behind the uplifting power of playIf foreign politics, environmental collapse and the impending takeover of the world by machines are leaving you glum, psychologists have identified a strategy that could help bolster your resilience: “lemonading”.Rather than wallowing in an acerbic soup of despair, researchers have discovered that people with high levels of playfulness may be better equipped to cope with the dud cards life throws at them.“They don’t necessarily do different activities or do them more often than others but they experience these activities more deeply – with greater immersion, mental engagement and joy,” says Dr Xiangyou “Sharon” Shen at Oregon State University in the US, who led the study. “We call this ability lemonading – they are essentially turning lemons into lemonade.”Shen and her colleague made this discovery by studying how 503 US adults experienced the Covid pandemic
WHO calls for cigarette-style cancer warnings on alcohol packaging
Cans and bottles of alcohol should carry cigarette-style labels warning that drinking increases the risk of cancer, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).The UN agency said governments should insist “prominent” warning labels become standard to alert consumers to the link between alcohol and cancer and tackle the harm caused by heavy drinking.Cancer charities welcomed the move and said such labels would overcome the widespread lack of awareness that alcohol is a proven cause of seven forms of cancer.“We know that alcohol causes seven types of cancer, including two of the most common – breast and bowel. Including warning labels would help raise awareness and encourage people to think about how much they drink”, said Malcolm Clarke, Cancer Research UK’s senior prevention policy manager
Doctor tells London inquest of ‘feelings of betrayal’ after son’s sepsis death
A consultant paediatrician has been unable to work at the hospital that failed to save her son from a sepsis infection, after “feelings of betrayal” towards her medical colleagues who ignored her warnings about errors in his treatment.William Hewes, 22, a history and politics student, died on 21 January 2023 of meningococcal septicaemia at Homerton hospital in east London, where his mother, Dr Deborah Burns, had worked for more than 20 years.Appearing at the inquest into her son’s death, Burns said: “It is impossible for words to describe adequately the pain of this immense loss and the feelings of betrayal that I feel about William’s death and the aftermath.”Bow coroner’s court heard that Burns had been “unable to work” at the hospital since witnessing a series of medical blunders at her son’s bedside.In a statement read to the court, she said: “From my direct experience as a witness, plus what I’ve seen in the notes and in statements, it’s my opinion that the medical staff involved in William’s care failed to observe him in any clinically useful way
Assisted dying bill critics attack plan for ‘civil service tsar’ to oversee panels
Expert panels that would approve assisted dying cases would be appointed by a commissioner chosen by the prime minister, according to new details, prompting criticism from opponents.According to amendments tabled by Kim Leadbeater, the Labour MP whose private member’s bill aims to legalise assisted dying for terminally ill people in England and Wales, some panels would be able to sit in private, and people refused an assisted death could get the right to appeal.The amendments set out how the process would work after Leadbeater announced earlier this week that she was removing the need for every case to be scrutinised by a high court judge, with this role now being performed by assisted dying review panels.While these panels would include a senior lawyer, a psychiatrist and a social worker, the change caused concern among some MPs who said they had voted for the bill on the basis that a judge would oversee each case.Leadbeater has said the move to a panel system will not just remove the potential bottleneck of having to provide family court judges, who have a significant workload, but would add extra protections against people being coerced to end their lives
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