Living With Dying
Most of us want to die at home, free of pain, surrounded by the people we love. But a great many people will die in a hospital. Bill Moyers undertook this four-part, six-hour PBS series to launch a conversation about dying and how to improve end-of-life care. As a field producer, asking people to share their final stories was one of the most difficult and most rewarding assignments I’ve ever had. “You want to follow me until I take my last breath?” asked one woman as she agreed to let my camera crew into her hospital room, “But you know, I’ve never done this before.”
I filmed in hospitals, hospices and homes, capturing some of the most intimate and candid conversations ever shared with a television audience. The series was nominated for a 2001 Emmy Award.
September 10, 2000.
(Photo: Stephen Muehleisen)
A Different Kind of Care
In the second episode of ON OUR OWN TERMS, we explored American cultural attitudes towards physical and spiritual suffering. Palliative-care teams believe that the suffering of terminal patients can be managed and the doctors and nurses that I followed were determined to make dying less painful and less frightening for patients and families.
September 10, 2000.
(Photo: Mel Greer)