‘We Are Going to Keep You Safe, Even if It Kills Your Spirit’

‘We Are Going to Keep You Safe, Even if It Kills Your Spirit’

In other care facilities and in hospitals, too, “wanderers” with dementia are believed to have spread the virus and caused outbreaks — but what are administrators to do? They can’t just lock people up. “Stay in your room,” the nursing aides tell Mr. Williams. But he...
Why Does the Richest Country in the World Rely on Volunteers for Emergency Healthcare?

Why Does the Richest Country in the World Rely on Volunteers for Emergency Healthcare?

The call was for a 64-year-old woman with a cough and inability to walk. But she did not appear to be having a medical emergency. I was confused about why 911 had been called. “Do you want to go to the hospital, Helen?” “I’m sorry to have called 911,” Brody answered....
Sent Home to Die

Sent Home to Die

Sarah Johnson spent her entire life taking care of people — the six children she raised, mostly alone, and the hospital patients she served in her 25 years as a nurse. But at 86, she was the one who needed care. She was thin and frail and had COVID-19. Her son Rodney...