Jennifer Worth trained as a nurse at the Royal Berkshire Hospital, Reading, and was later ward sister at the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Hospital in London, then the Marie Curie Hospital, also in London. Music had always been her passion, and in 1973 she left nursing in order to study music intensively, teaching piano and singing for about twenty-five years. Jennifer died in May 2011 after a short illness, leaving her husband Philip, two daughters and three grandchildren. Her books have all been bestsellers.
By Jennifer Worth
Eczema and Food Allergy
Call the Midwife
Shadows of the Workhouse
Farewell to the East End
In the Midst of Life
Index
abuse, 207
acidosis, 217, 230, 232
acute intestinal obstruction, 10—11, 15, 20, 42
adrenaline, 340
advance directives (advance decisions), 117, 122—5, 354
advanced life support, 340
age discrimination, 252, 258, 353
‘agonal gasp’, 241
AIDS, 60—1
airways, 339
Aldershot Military Hospital, 239
Aldwinkle, Matron, 24—9, 136—7, 179
allbumen levels, 382
Allow a Natural Death (AND) procedure, 348—9
almoners, 62
Alzheimer’s disease, 194—6, 258, 366
see also dementia
ambulance services, 251, 253—7, 338, 349, 350, 357—67
amiodarone, 340
amyl nitrite, 216—17
amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, 279
anaesthesia, and ventricular fibrillation, 337
analgesics, provision of, 63—5
Anderson, Mr, 128—44
angina pectoris, 216
anti-arrhythmic drugs, 340
aortic aneurysm, 240
aperients, 231, 290
Aristotle, 326
Army Medical Services Emergency Team (AMSET), 239—40
artificial hydration, 382—3
ascites, 230
aspirin, 309
assisted dying, 313—15, 323—8
see also euthanasia; suicide
atheism, 332
atheroma, 216, 272
atrial response, 248, 250
atropine, 340
Auschwitz, 116
Automatic External Defibrillators (AEDs), 251, 255—6, 258, 338, 343
Avon, Somerset and Wiltshire Cancer Services, 349
back-pressure, 229—30
Baden-Baden, 318—21
Bass, Madeline, 257, 368—76
Beckett, Samuel, 201
bedsores, 21, 105, 196, 230—2
Belfast, 337
Belsen, 116
benign growths, 120
bereavement, 158—61, 163—4, 194
Bible texts
Ecclesiastes, 8
St John, 214
birth, 33, 148
Blake, William, 154
blindness, 195
blood clots, 170, 272
Boer War, 5
Bonn, 345
brain, 46—7
and degenerative disorders, 278
frontal lobe, 195
hypothalamus, 107
and oxygen starvation, 87—8
and resuscitation, 230, 237, 246, 250, 254, 344—5
speech centres, 278
stem reflex, 345
Briggs Report, 203
British Humanist Association, 116—17, 122
British Medical Association (BMA), 187—8, 211, 257, 373
British Patients’ Benevolent Fund, 132—3
Brompton Cocktail, 82—3, 89, 105, 134
bronchitis, 196
Bruce, Joanna, 270
Buddhists, 56, 332
Burnham, Dr Rodney, 199
Butler, Josephine, 164
Cairngorms, 144
cancer, 81, 133—4, 300, 302, 306, 346
abdominal, 298
breast, 81—4, 318
and hospice movement, 62—7
lung, 160
ovarian, 111
prostate, 90—1, 162
and resuscitation, 370—1
sarcoma, 64, 102, 108
and spontaneous recovery, 138
cancer patients, 81—126, 128—44, 298—306, 318—28, 362—3
Cancer Research Foundation, 144
cannulation, 357
cardiac arrests, 237, 240—1, 257, 339, 341—44, 352—3, 359, 369, 373—4
cardiac stimulants, 21, 24, 238—9
care homes, 38—9, 197—202
and agency staff, 303
and deaths, 197—9
and force-feeding, 199—200
nursing homes, 38—9, 190—1, 298—303
and profit motive, 201—2
and resuscitation, 254, 258, 348
Care Quality Commission (CQC), 206—10
catheters, and prostate cancer, 90—1
cerebral haemorrhages, 170—1, 179, 182—3, 243
Chamberlain, Professor
Douglas, 359
chemotherapy, 81, 318
chest (lung) infections, 21, 41, 48
see also pneumonia and ‘the old man’s friend’
Cheyne Stokes breathing, 80
children
and death, 33, 147—53, 163
funerals of, 156—7
and grief, 152
choking, 196, 281
cholera, 168
Christianity, 332
chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), 363, 366
Church of England, 280
City and Guilds, 208
cleft palate, 221
codeine, 64
colitis, 180
colostomies, 15, 18, 20—22, 30—35
comas, 344—5
Community First Responders, 251,338
concentration camps, 22—3, 28, 35, 52, 74, 116—17, 218
confusion, 194
constipation, 231, 290, 298, 303
consultants
remoteness of, 22
and fear of litigation, 186—8
see also doctors
Contagious Diseases Act, 164
corneal reflex, 345
coronary arteries, occlusion of, 272,358
coroners, 249
Cotterill, Edith, 80
counsellors, 159, 161
Court of Protection, 374
Cox, Mrs, 81—4
crash teams, 238, 240—1
cremations, 156
Criminal Records Bureau, 206
Critical Care Paramedics (CCPs), 358
Cunningham, Mrs, 111—26
Dartford, 357
Darzi Report, 365
deafness, 195
death
as active process, 99—100
definition of, 197
with dignity, 118, 312
death—contd
fear of, 124—6
at home, 161—3
and hospitals, 48—9, 146, 161, 244,312
and the living, 15 9—61
from old age, 5, 7, 45
social attitudes to, 146—53
verification of, 351—2
violent, 146, 148—9
‘death agony’, 28
death certificates, 7, 352
death rituals, 56
see also funerals
decapitation, 253
decomposition, 253
defensive medicine, 48, 283
see also litigation, fear of
defibrillators portable, 252, 337
see also Automatic External Defibrillators; Internal Cardiac Defibrillators
dehydration, 383
delirium, 382—3
dementia, 35, 194—5, 278, 308, 371
see also Alzheimer’s disease
depression, 54, 158, 190, 194—5
diabetes, 69, 71, 76—7, 216—17, 231—2
diamorphine, 362
diarrhoea, 231, 303, 309, 382
digitali
s, 216—17
Dignitas clinic, 313,3 24—5
Dignity in Dying, 312, 349
Do Not Attempt Resuscitation (DNAR) orders, 242—3, 251, 253—6, 258, 349, 346—8, 356, 360—1, 365—7, 372, 374, 376
doctors
and death, 54—6, 230—2
and fear of litigation, 242
and incurable conditions, 136—7
and public expectations, 242
see also consultants
Doctrine of Double Effect, 383
Doherty Mrs, 165—91
Downes, Sir Edward and Lady, 313—14
drowning, 253, 338, 354
Dublin, 243
duodenal ulcers, 309
ECG interpretation, 357—8
Edinburgh, 243
electrocution, 337, 338, 354
electrolyte balance, 230, 382—3
Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Hospital, 171, 308
embolism, 170
End of Life Care, 210, 368—86
endomorphs, 107
endotracheal intubation, 339, 357
enemas, 231, 290, 298, 304
ether convulsion, 15
ethics committees, 211, 251, 346
euthanasia, 117, 122, 307—13
Euthanasia Society, 118, 123
evolution, 309
faith, decline of, 332
FASTrack stroke pathway, 359
feed-pegs, 199, 282
see also naso-gastric tubes
films, 146, 148
Final Lap, The, 197
First World War, 26, 102—3, 153, 205, 218, 260
flavine, 231
flu epidemic, 153
force-feeding, 98, 199—200
forgiveness, 218
frontal-temporal degeneration 278
funerals, 153, 155—8
gall bladder, 229
gangrene, 21
gastrectomy, 13, 129
gastrostomy, 199—200
General Medical Council, 350
geriatrics, 294
Germany, 51, 53, 316, 328
Glasgow Coma Scale, 345
glottis, 280
Goteborg, 342
Gravesend, 254
Griffiths Report, 203—4
Guedel airway, 339
guilt, and bereavement, 161
Hackett, David, 150
also Appendix I 337—356
Harlow, Wilson, 91
Hart, David, 50, 145, 193
Havel, Vaclav, 127
Hawking, Professor Stephen, 278
healthcare assistants, 137, 205—13
salaries, 208—9, 213
heart attacks, 4, 29, 46, 48, 157, 218—19, 234, 246—7, 250, 272—3, 275, 337, 346, 366
heart block, 340
heart disease, and mortality rates, 356
heart failure, 196, 234, 300, 302
acute heart failure, 272
congestive heart failure, 216—17, 228—9
heart surgery, 337
heartburn, 129
hemiplegia, 175—6
heparin, 217
hiatus hernias, 129
high blood pressure, 170
Hinduism, 56, 332
Hippocratic oath, 309
home defibrillation, 338
home helps, 295
hope, 139—40
hospice movement, 63, 65—7
hospices, 159, 161, 348
hospital dramas, 251, 342, 369
hospitals
in 1950s, 30
hospitals—contd
and death, 48—9, 146, 161, 244,312
geriatric, 292—4
and hospital-acquired infections, 308
and resuscitation, 340—2, 348, 351, 355—6
How We Die, 196—7, 235—7
Huntingdon’s chorea, 278
Hyem, Dr Conrad, 68—79, 215—32,238
hypercalcemia, 382
hyperglycaemia, 217
hypothermia, 344, 354
hysterectomies, 111, 120
immigrants, 210—11
incineration, 253
incontinence, 4, 196, 308
Independent Mental Capacity Advisor, 374
insulin, 73, 75, 217, 230
Integrated Care Pathway, 283
Intensive Care National
Audit & Research Centre
(ICNARC), 341
intensive care units, 16, 238
Internal Cardiac Defibrillators
(ICDs), 343
International Liaison
Committee on
Resuscitation, 344
International Voluntary Service
for Peace, 53
intraosseous cannulation, 357
intravenous cannulation, 357
irritable bowel, 309
Jehovah’s Witnesses, 209
Jesus Christ, 326
Jewish law, 332
Jews, 51—2, 73—4, 217—18, 288
Johns Hopkins Medical
Research Faculty, 237
Joint Royal Colleges
Ambulance Liaison
Committee (JRCALC)
guidelines, 253—5, 360
kidneys, 217, 229, 236
dialysis, 200, 347
failure, 196, 228, 232
infections, 41, 48
Korean War, 337
Ku Klux Klan, 61
Kubler-Ross, Dr Elisabeth, 51—61, 67
laparotomy, 13, 129, 133
Laryngeal Mask Airway
(LMA), 339
Latvia, 9, 13, 37
Lawrence, Philip, 163—4
laying-out, 160
Leah, 285—306
leukaemia, 56, 58
Lewis, John, 278—84
life after death, 110
litigation, fear of, 186—8, 242, 258, 373
liver, 217, 228—9
Liverpool Care Pathway, 161, 283, 371, 376
living wills, 251, 256, 258, 354
In the Midst of Life Page 42