Hospice care needs some help from Congress

Published October 17, 2019 4:00am ET



It was me and my sister in a room watching our brother hooked up to an oxygen machine and laboring to breathe. The machine buzzed. I went into the hallway and asked for the nurse. She came and said this happens all the time; it’s an old machine that had been refurbished.

A short while later, I noticed that I wasn’t hearing my brother breathe anymore. The machine buzzed again. The nurse came in. I said, “I think it’s right this time.” She checked his pulse and agreed. I asked, “What do we do?” She said, “You can wait in here or wait in the hallway.”

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