UPDATE: March 10, 2020: Governor Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan signed an Executive Order permitting the use of electronic signatures and electronic visitations during COVID-19 "Stay at Home" Orders. Read more here. https://tinyurl.com/urypra6
UPDATE: May 13, 2021: The Pfizer vaccine has just been approved for children ages 12 to 15. Contact your local health department for appointments or access local news outlets. See Munson Health Care announcement here. https://tinyurl.com/92rb77r4
Elder lawyers and Family Law lawyers in Michigan and elsewhere been discussing the issue raised so often now during Covid-19. Who gets the ventilator, whose life is worth saving?
As I read some of the articles from the New York Times submitted by readers in response to the Times' query for letters describing how this health crisis is affecting readers, I came upon one written by a woman who is in Florida watching over the care of her 90+-year-old mother. It was very, very moving.
And those letters made me think of a book that I believe is so unique, so inspirational, so wonderful for folks confronting end-of-life issues and dying with dignity. That book is When Breath Becomes Air, written by Paul Kalanithi. The Foreward was written by Abraham Verghese, Kalanithi's supervising faculty member at Standford. Verghese is senior associate chair and professor for the Theory and Practice of Medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine. He sees patients, teaches students, and he also writes. As a writer, it would have been natural for him to appreciate Kalanithi's eloquence and style. I note on the Amazon website that I have purchased six copies of this book. [Disclosure: I do not receive any commission from Amazon or any other entity for recommending this book.] I don't see a copy of the book here, so I am assuming that I have given away my last copy. Today, I have purchased copy number seven.
