Grace Notes

Grace Notes is a series of essays by Sound Medicine contributor Dr. Larry Cripe, an oncologist specializing in palliative care at Indiana University Hospital in Indianapolis. Dr. Cripe reflects on how we might make the experience of dying more livable and meaningful, before, during and after a person passes.

Personal Health

The Shadow of Death Is Cast Wider When We Refuse To Speak Of It

This Grace Notes essay originally aired on August 30, 2009.Moments before I said goodbye to her family, I had gripped the hand of her brother-in-law as…
Personal Health

Speaking of Loss

I knew that a child had died by the way that she paused and glanced at her husband when I asked “how many children do you have?” She was eighty-four years…
Community Rx (old)

Treating Terminal Cancer Means Not 'Giving Up' But Choosing Different Goals

In a few hours, my patient Dawn would leave the hospital after a stay of nearly six weeks. I wouldn't be surprised when her mother called me a week later…
Coronavirus

"Whatever It Is You Do, You Do Well"

http://media.soundmedicine.org/segments/051814_8.mp3In this Grace Notes essay, Larry Cripe, M.D., reflects upon the death of a patient whose dying words…

Sick Season 2

Incarcerated people are some of the sickest people in our country. Many have chronic conditions such as diabetes or lung disease. And they’re far more likely to suffer from mental illness and addiction. On Season 2 of Sick, listen to stories of what goes wrong in corrections facilities — places meant to keep people healthy, but built to punish them.

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