Justice For All
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Dart to Post on Hospice
The non-profit hospice program described below is what enabled
Justin Dart to free himself from medical institutionalization:
"Happy in Hospice Care"
The Washington Post
Saturday, July 4, 1998; Page A13
The June 14 front-page article "Hospices Big Business, Thanks to
Medicare"
relates some problems associated with government-supported hospice
services. There are problems with all human services. And in this period
of
rapidly expanding health sciences, such difficulties are bound to be
associated with pioneering services.
I am a person with extensive post-polio paralysis who recently suffered a
massive attack of congestive heart failure. I am a patient of one of the
hospice organizations mentioned in your article.
As a former CEO of two small corporations and one large one -- as well as
head of two small federal agencies -- I can tell you that Hospice Care of
D.C. is extraordinarily efficient and customer-oriented. Most important,
it
is staffed by loving, caring, superbly professional human beings.
Dying is never fun. But the last months of my life as a hospice patient
have been profoundly beautiful, perhaps the best months of my life.
Instead of being incarcerated in the hospital, where I felt like a
laboratory rat in a cage, I am here in my home. I am in control of my own
life. I am with my magnificent wife and family and other people I love. I
am able to carry on some of my work advocating the rights of people with
disabilities.
In the face of death, with the support of hospice, surrounded by my
beloved
family and colleagues in advocacy, I have been able to focus with fresh
clarity on the privilege and beauty of life.
This situation costs much less than staying in the hospital and is light
years superior in terms of quality of life.
If, as you say, Hospice Care of D.C. has only 40 patients, perhaps it is
because its workers spend their energy loving people like me rather than
hustling customers and funding. Why not write an article about them?
I appreciate your paper's responsible journalism.
-- Justin Dart Jr.
-- Fred Fay Chair, Justice For All jfa(AT)mailbot.com HTTP://www.mailbot.com/justice
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Thank you.
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