Dying is not much fun. As a GP I have seen a lot of it. Its not the very end bit that bothers me. The last breath is, paradoxically, often serene and peaceful. What I find most difficult is that wretched time that starts when hope is torn away and illness sates its unrelenting hunger. The […]
Tag: palliative care
Rebecca Welfare on World TB Day: dilemmas in tuberculosis treatment
The weekly multidisciplinary committee on drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB) had assembled to discuss the case of a young man who had started treatment for multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) 12 months previously. […]
Mervyn Dean on the end of his trip to Tanzania
This will be my last blog from Tanzania. I’m going to spend a couple of days visiting the island of Zanzibar – pure vacation, nothing to do with work – and then begin the trek home. My time here has not been as fulfilling as I had hoped, which naturally has been disappointing. Nonetheless there have been positive […]
Mervyn Dean on palliative care in Tanzania
It would be a stretch to say that I have now adapted to the African way, but after three weeks here at the Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Centre (KCMC) in Moshi, Tanzania, I am getting to do some of what I came here to do without, as far as I can tell, upsetting anyone in the […]
Mervyn Dean on adjusting to work in Tanzania
It used to be, and may still be, that in the tourist shops here one could buy a T-shirt bearing the words, “No hurry in Africa.” I now understand what it means, and I’m sure that many reading this who have worked in Africa will not be surprised at my experience to date. I am […]
Dr Harry’s netlines
The well known web site YouTube has amassed a reputation for containing a huge repository of video footage covering virtually every subject imaginable (and more). So it may come as no surprise that there are serious and educational videos to be found here. One video comes from the UK and covers cardiovascular examination. […]
Anna Donald blogging again
It’s been a bit of a rough five weeks, as readers might have guessed from the protracted absence of blogs. Apparently I was “overdosed” on chemotherapy and ended up in hospital for 4.2 weeks. Which is four weeks too long. Though to be honest, I was so out of it during the first two I […]
William Lee on Philip Nitschke
Dr Philip Nitschke, director of the Australian pro-euthanasia group EXIT International, has come to the UK to promote the launch of his ebook ‘The Peaceful Pill Handbook’ – a controversial guide to methods of suicide. The paper version has been banned in Australia and published in New Zealand with some pages blacked out. […]
Birte Twisselmann at the annual meeting of the AGMS
Some months ago I was invited to the Anglo-German Medical Society’s 49th annual meeting, to be held in Cologne on 11-14 September 2008. As a German national who trained as a technical editor with the BMJ and who translates medical papers from German into English in her spare time I accepted. […]